Monday, November 22, 2021

Recap: November 22, 2021

 

Ladies and Gentlemen, Senator Ted Cruz:

President Biden’s supply chain crisis won’t spare your Thanksgiving sides. Sweet Potatoes, gravy, cranberry sauce, and pies are all experiencing shortages throughout the country.

Oh. My. God! Not the sweet potatoes! 


First Joe Biden took away our turkeys and our hams. 

Now he's come for our pie!

And... boxed gravy, apparently. 

You know, I didn't want to straight up call Ted Cruz, a Senator forsooth, a goddamn pandering liar. 

I didn't. 

So I went to the cheapest, low-end grocery store in my town, the place that doesn't know how to order stuff even when there isn't a "supply chain crisis." 

And not just the lowest end store in town, but a damn low end town. This place isn't exactly a hub of commerce and transportation. Hell, I have to drive across the bay into Pensacola just to get a USB cable. So, if there's any place that the shelves ought to be bare, it's Winn Dixie in Milton, Florida. 


Except, the shelves were stocked. 

Turkeys (fresh and frozen, also various parts you could just buy out of the regular freezer if you only want a certain piece of the bird), ducks, ham in five different kinds, yams (canned and fresh), potatoes (russets, yellow, red), produce, pumpkin, condensed milk, brown sugar, broth of every kind imaginable, baked goods and about the only thing missing from this Thanksgiving bonanza was a band of Narraganset come to show you pilgrims how to plant corn in the New World. 

There was even gravy, boxed, canned, and in a jar. In five different flavors, including turkey. 

Turns out, Ted Cruz is a goddamn liar. 

But, just inside the door, there's a big florid guy in a Trump hat and some sort of shirt with eagles and flags and guns shouting into a phone: Ya'll betta git down heya! The shelves is empty!

I'm like, wut?

The shelves are empty? I could see a 1000lbs of turkeys and the guy is literally standing next to a stack of pies high enough to feed the entire nation of Rwanda. But the shelves are empty. Goddamn that Joe Biden!

I mean, this guy can literally see the shelves are not empty with his own eyes, but he's such a programmed tool that he believes Ted Cruz and Tucker Carlson over his own senses. 

These people simply do not exist in the same reality with ... well, reality. 

There was plenty of everything else too. Plenty of butter, milk, eggs, Pop Tarts, frozen burritos. Toilet paper. Tums...

The produce looked a little skanky, but it's Winn Dixie. The produce always looks a little skanky. 

Sometimes a lot skanky. 

Another aisle, another big florid dude shoves in past me and starts grabbing "family" sized bags of Doritos from the end cap. Says to his wife, "Two fer $4.95! We better stock up!" 

He filled up a cart. A whole cart. Two for $4.95. He really likes Doritos, I guess. Better get 'em before Joe Biden does. 

My point being that if you're leaving the store with a whole separate buggy full of Doritos, there ain't no "supply crisis." 


Look here, in addition to the 15 different kinds of Oreos in the the cookie aisle, they had a totally separate display at the front of the store for Christmas Oreos. 

Christmas Oreos. 

"5 cool winter designs!" no less. 

That's like 20 different kinds of Oreos. 

You could have fed the entire Plymouth Colony on nothing but bags of Oreos from this store. 

There are people, too many people in far too many parts of the world right now today struggling to get enough calories just to stay alive. But we got 20 different kinds of Oreos and Family Size Doritos 2-for-$5 and Ted Cruz is mad because he read a Yahoo News article about a shortage of ... gravy in a box. 

I don't know. 

I guess at this point we should just be glad Ted Cruz is tweeting about gravy from Washington D.C. and not Senior Frog's on the beach in Cancun. 

Anyway, I look forward to the Republican plan to fund and train more truck drivers. 


105 comments:

  1. Same here in my small corner of the world in Oregon's Willamette Valley. No shortage of anything that I can tell - these arseholes are also lying arseholes. But we knew that.

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    1. I'm also in the Willamette Valley (southern end). No shortages here AT ALL. Food is plentiful and I swear the gas went down in price.

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    2. Eastern Oregon here. All is well. Plenty of everything. Een gas prices are still hanging out where they were pre-imaginary shortage

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    3. I think I'm also in the Willamette Valley (new transplant). No shortages here.

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    4. Willamette Valley represent! I'm in Portland where the stores are open and the shelves are well-stocked. I was in Winco yesterday and Costco a couple of days before and I did not see empty shelves.
      In fact, in the Winco parking lot a couple were discussing what they were going to do with the free turkey they just got, because they didn't need it.

      Delete
    5. Likewiae in the Willamette Valley. Stocked up on everything last Frisay. Plenty of everything on hand at an Albertson's, which is an economy brand. I'm sure Fred Meyer and Market of Choice have everythging at higher prices, as well.

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    6. Representing from Eugene. The only things I am having difficulty finding are small adult toothbrushes and toilet bowl cleaner. The markets that I frequent (Market of Choice, Albertsons, and Fred Meyer (aka Kroger) are all well stocked with groceries.

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    7. Just drove from the North end of the Olympic Peninsula to Santa Cruz CA and back with stays in Eugene OR, Napa, Petaluma & Oakland CA. Plenty of food on all the shelves in all the stores we entered everywhere. Dunno. Cruz is in Texas. Maybe he's lying. Maybe we're just more competent on the Left Coast than Texans.

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    8. Lying Ted is an asshole to begin with. He'd rather tell a lie as to tell the truth. He just needs to get back in bed with his favorite buddy Donnieboy Trump. That way they could do what they do best, give each a blowjob!

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    9. Ted cancun Cruz must be doing his shopping at 4 am on sunday morning before the stocking crews get done loading shelves. Thats the only time I've found shelves depleted in the mid valley. But then again the food is usually still in boxes blocking all the aisles at my mcminnville Winco store.

      Shout out to my fellow oregon, stonekettle station followers. Glad to know I'm not alone.

      Delete
  2. The only thing I couldn't find in my grocery store (Wegmans) today was boxed frozen spinach (for the lasagna I'm thinking of making Saturday if the vegetarian cousins come up). Since the pandemic started we'd go a week or two without some random thing, so I'm used to it. If you can't find one thing on your list, Thanksgiving won't be ruined. Really. I swear!

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    1. We live in a rural area and, like you, have had weekly random shortages at the grocery store. The basics are always in stock, unless I try to shop on Sunday afternoon.��‍♀️ No big deal.

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  3. Here outside Albany NY, the shelves are a mixed bag. It’s been that way for a while and I’ve not seen Biden hanging out messing things up.

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    1. The only missing item I've noticed is no Hannaford brand saltine crackers... not exactly a holiday must-have.

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  4. My local Costco did not have the boxed chicken stock that I wanted today. Now, it's Costco and they reset the store like nightly, so they might have just hidden it from me, but otherwise that and every other store I've been in has been well stocked of late.

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    1. Hey Connie, Dollar tree has awesome chicken broth, probably boxed at the same factory, and it's, you got it, $1. I use it all the time. IF you have a Dollar Tree where you live.

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    2. Costco is a crapshoot, I buy lots there, and love their 6 packs of romaine, but even that goes missing.

      I think most grocery store supply chain issues are incompetent persons doing the ordering.

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    3. My local Costco stopped carrying some things. I found that the Business Costco carries some of the missing things, but it's an extra 10 minutes each way. We use a couple of regular stores because of non-overlapping items, and alternate trips. Some shortages at times, but nothing major.

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  5. We're on a Thanksgiving trip to visit our son in Anchorage. The Freddy Meyers up here is fairly bulging with enough foodstuffs (fresh and frozen) to stock all of Connecticut. It's astounding.

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  6. Same here at the Stop 'n' Shop in Long Beach, NY! And the sale prices were good, too! So much for the debilitating inflation!

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  7. No problem at Market Basket in Stratham,NH. Plenty of everything.

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    1. Same in Salem, NH. All three Market Baskets are chock-full!

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  8. It really feels like we are surrounded by idiots of the lowest common denominator.
    I'm surprised Cruz isn't trying to sell us Amway soap.

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  9. Our local grocery store had everything on your list except for the loud a****le on the phone. I've never seen the frozen turkey bin piled so high.

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  10. Our local grocery store had everything on your list except for the loud a****le on the phone. I've never seen the frozen turkey bin piled so high.

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  11. I am embarrassed to say that I am from Texas. That makes me sad, because it used to be a great place to live. You have every reason to call Ted Cruz a liar. I'm in Austin, and there are no shortages here that I've seen. But I doubt that asshole has actually been inside a grocery store in ages. Excellent recap. Thanks!

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    1. He (Cruz) lives in Houston, as do I. There certainly is no shortage here! And he damn well knows that, but prefers to lie.

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    2. I wonder if Samsung has any plans on how to deal with the idiocy after they build their integrated circuit plant there. Wait out the demographics? Take advantage of how cheap politicians are to bribe here? Until whatever happens, I don't imagine they will have much luck getting female, or sane, ethical male, engineers to relocate to Texas.

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  12. I bought the last cannot coconut cream to day to make butter mochi. That is literally the only empty spot I saw in the entire grocery store and it was early on a Monday. Shortages my ass. It’s starting to look like one big psyop to make people spend, spend, spend.

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    1. I know where your coconut cream is: up here in MA on the endcap at my local Wegmans. Do you have our eggnog?

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  13. The fact that all that crap is *on sale* begs the lie. If there's a supply chain problem and you're not able to restock, you don't put your wares on sale. Supply and demand, right? Scarcity amplifies demand, so you *raise* your prices to help maintain some supply, right?

    Right?

    I guess Trumpistan must have different economics.

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  14. No cheese whiz in Central Texas, but plenty of Velveeta. I can adapt and overcome. Then again, Cruz is my senator; it's a skill one needs here.

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  15. The only thing we've had trouble finding is cat food. Not that that is featured in our Thanksgiving traditions.

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    1. Amazon is your savior for catfood!

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    2. I can find it, it's just more expensive. Noticeably the only thing that's gone up in my grocery shopping. (Whatever the real rate of inflation, they're rising faster.)

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  16. Food Lion in NC even has whole turkeys on sale, for almost as cheap as I've seen them in 50 years on the earth (.19/lb). And Food Lion is, well... I miss having a Winn-Dixie, if that tells you anything. And I got 8 lbs of loose sweet potatoes at a local chain for <$2.50. (I don't only use them for thanksgiving.)

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    1. Food Lion sounds like what Cancun Cruz has been doing, doesn't it?

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  17. In one of my only experiences in an American grocery store, I was absolutely astonished at how many sweet things there were, in the baking supplies are, frostings etc, and how much packaged stuff like Doritos there was. We have a lot, but not anywhere near the same amount.

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    1. And people wonder why obesity is a problem here.

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    2. (I don't think the preview function works, BTW)
      Because a lot of what we eat is only food on a technicality?

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  18. On Saturday, I cruised up and down every aisle in my Harrisburg, PA supermarket. I did not notice a single empty shelf. Turkeys piled so high they were in danger of crashing to the floor, enough fresh (and produce) to feed a herd of vegetarians, and pretty much anything you could want for a gigantic Thanksgiving dinner. As usual, Ted is full of shit.

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  19. Thankful for well stocked stores in NM, and for so much more than that.

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  20. Amazing, but we found everything we were looking for in one store also: turkey, makings for stuffing, sweet potatoes, etc. Well, almost everything. We couldn't find sugar pumpkin for homemade pies; therefore, forced to use the canned stuff.

    And boxed/jarred gravy? That explains everything right there.

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  21. Oddly, here in northern Pinellas Co., FL our local Publix supermarkets are suffering a cream cheese spread shortage. There's almost none on the shelves. They are quite low on block cream cheese as well. Haven't checked other supermarket chains yet - I don't shop much. Eh, I can live without it, it's not exactly a crisis IMO. There's so much food on the shelves, it's silly to panic if you can't get one particular item. We're omnivores, for gosh sake. Part of our species' success is due to our willingness to eat durn near anything we could get to hold still long enough to get our teeth into.

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    1. That's not a supply chain issue. It's cheesecake, cheese ball, and dip season. Happens every year.

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    2. Big cream cheese maker in Wisconsin was hit with a ransom ware attack a while back. Back online but it might have put a dent in the supply.

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    3. Here in NC cream cheese has been in short supply for several weeks. Our Publix had some but none of the double packs, and it was a lot more expensive than usual, and they limited purchase to two boxes. But it's not just a Publix thing; the Ingles is the same way, and I don't like Aldi's cream cheese.

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  22. I was in Costco an hour ago in Los Angeles and saw people literally buying cartful's of pumpkin, apple and pecan pies.
    Despite that, the workers were bringing pallets more out onto the floor.
    They are nowhere near running out.

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  23. The Republican plan is to change the law so that 18-year-olds can be long-haul truckers. (https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2021/05/25/999784202/is-there-really-a-truck-driver-shortage)

    I'm sure an industry with a 90% turnover rate will be able to retain those who survive their first year.

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    1. God help us when 18 year olds long haul. My husband, ex OTR driver, is appalled by this.

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    2. Hmm. Even the military won’t let folks drive a tractor trailer until they are 21.

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    3. Another appalled trucker. I drive school buses now and I see 18 year olds every day. SO not ready for OTR

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  24. Walmart in the UP. There is so.
    much stuff you can't get down the aisles because a significant chunk of the workers quit because Walmart took away their quarterly bonuses which cut pay by about 25% and there are jobs everywhere. The shelves are full. The aisles are full. The warehouse is full. Idiots.

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  25. I am from Texas and Ted Cruz is a lying sack of horse excrement! (no offense to horses) The grocery stores in Ted's own city are well stocked. Admittedly some of the stores don't have the over-the-top displays of everything you need for green bean casserole all in one place, but you can find it on the shelves. And prices are not any more than they were last year, you know, when TFG was in office.

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  26. Sweet potatoes? Last week at Meijer they were 25 cents a pound. Never seen them that cheap, so I bought several. Did not realize there was a shortage.

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  27. Well, actually Cancun Cruz would do less harm if he weren't in DC. Oh, well. The shelves are well-stocked here in little Silver City, NM. And we ARE literally at the end of the road/supply chain. So if anyone were to have shortages it would be us.

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  28. In my corner of the world, Billings, MT, the Town & Country Foods (locally owned), Winco, and Albertsons are all topped to the rafters with food. The only thing I wish we were short of is the red #45-2 assholes who inhabit Billings.

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    1. I live up here in Conrad,MT. The local IGA store is quite well stocked.

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  29. Bought potatoes for a Friendsgiving meal on Saturday at Weis here in Central PA. Buy 2 get 1 free. I now have an 8 lb bag of potatoes to donate to the food pantry. I’ll see your Lyin’ Ted Cruz and raise you a Worthless Scott Perry.

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  30. Ted Cruz has probably not seen the inside of a grocery store to verify his tweet.

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  31. All good in Seattle (Ballard, specifically).

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  32. Here in the boonies of NW Missouri, I got almost everything I wanted at Aldi. They had a big display of 3 or 4 different flavors of stuffing mix. I had to go to Hy-Vee, though, to get my favorite smoked turkey drumsticks.

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    1. Oh hey neighbor! Yeah, Aldi rocks. The only bare shelves I see around here at Price Chopper, HyVee, or Sunfresh are the post Halloween and fall decor shelves. It's like who are you going to believe, Ted Cruz or your lying eyes?

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  33. Anybody with the common sense of an amardillo knows Cruz is full of it.

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  34. Our supply chain disruptions here in the interior of BC are due to the various highways washed out last week. Even so I found everything needed this afternoon.

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  35. Food Lion, Kroger, Aldi, and Walmart all have fully stocked shelves in my backwater, podunk area of Virginia. Oh sure, I can't get my favorite paper towels in pretty prints anymore (the horror!), and I only have 7 brands of something to choose from instead of 10, but we're sure as hell not scrabbling to find basic necessities. Ted Cruz is a big, fat, lying liar.

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  36. The year of the start of this mess, shelves were bare! It was literally a a riot if toilet paper, or paper towels and sanitary wipes showed up. Now, not so much. Of course, the bare shelves occurred during the Trump reign. Yup. During the reign of the Orange Shitgibbon! The only thing we can’t get right now is King Crab from the Bering Sea. Damn you Joe Biden!!! How come you let the King Crab population shrink because of climate change???

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  37. Plenty around here at the local store, the Pick N Save, Dollar General, all those stores. The ONLY store with empty shelves? Walmart. Yep, Walmart has empty shelves. Glad I no longer shop there.

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  38. The only thing I wasn’t able to find at my local Bangor, MI (NOT Maine!) store were Won ton wrappers. Horrors!!

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  39. Far Pacific NW here, and no shortages of anything, anywhere.
    Talk about alternate realities...

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  40. You mean? I shoulda got a couple more, sweet potato pies on my last trip to the store? The only thing I see missing off the shelves; Marie Callender Pot Pies, and that's been going on for the last 2 years. This sounds eerily like the "their going to stop selling guns"| then there is a built-in shortage when everyone panics and rolls through the store with two shopping carts. It's a self-fulfilling prophecy.

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  41. Jesus Saves... But nobody saves you more than Winn Dixie!

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  42. I live in Kansas City and the only bare shelves I've seen in a month was in a Las Vegas Dollar Tree in a shady part of town. It was so shady that the checkout girl at Target next door told us not to take the bus back because it wasn't safe. Even that Target had full shelves.

    So, what does my experience tell me? That shelves are not bare unless the populace is so poor they can only afford the Dollar Tree type of stores. We may be recovering from TFG's fleecing of America, but not all of us have recovered, unfortunately.

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  43. ShopRite, Stop 'n Shop, Big Y (yes, that's the name of the chain), Walmart, and Target are all chock-a-block with food. But I should hustle down to Florida, Doritos ain't as cheap here in Connecticut.

    However I've noticed over the past months that reality doesn't seem to matter to the Trumpistas and other assorted conservatives. I was at the pharmacy a couple of weeks ago to get the Moderna booster and someone quite literally told me that Moderna would make me magnetic, which is why he wasn't getting vaccinated. A pseudo-shortage of boxed gravy is nothing compared to that

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  44. We the consumers are currently buying 30% more goods than we did this time two years ago before the pandemic started. The number of cargo ships reaching our ports is up 20% over two years ago. The ports are backed up in large part because we are still demanding more goods than the supply chain can get to us. Add in top of that thousands of unfilled truck driver positions to move those goods around and you basically have a good idea of our current state of supply chain problems.

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  45. I'm just wondering how long it would take to eat a shopping cart full of Doritos. I would think that after a few weeks, they would own $50 of bare ruin'd choirs of their former freshness.

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  46. What ever happened to making your own gravey using pan drippings and flour or corn starch?

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  47. Cruz "wants" to create a crisis. Then he can say how bad things are. Typical republican tactic.

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  48. "I guess at this point we should just be glad Ted Cruz is tweeting about gravy from Washington D.C. and not Senior Frog's on the beach in Cancun."

    Ummmmm, no. Ted is one of the senators from my state (the other being the equally useless but quieter John Cornyn). I would MUCH prefer that he be in Cancun, or anywhere else, really.

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    Replies
    1. Thank you, Darlin I feel your pain.
      Hailing from Galveston Island

      Delete
  49. My cat told me if I bring home store brand cat food again he's gonna puke on me in my sleep.

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  50. Explain to me how these people who went thru actual shortages at the beginning of the lockdown, can think these full shelves are the 5th sign of the apocalypse?

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  51. Here in BC, we actually do have some supply chain problems due to recent floods and landslides wiping out roads, bridges and train tracks. Gas is now rationed. This has been done by taping a written notice to the pumps, asking people not to buy more than 30 liters. Seems to be working quite well.

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  52. Unless Cruz is shopping at the Soviet Safeway, he's just lying. All the other grocery stores here around DC are packed and doing land-office business.

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  53. Shortages in Jackson Hole but it's mainly because none of the workers can afford to live here with all the Californians and Texans buying all the rental housing and moving here.

    Stores can't get staff enough to stock the shelves.

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  54. Yes, but can you find a Thanksgiving Turkey in Cancun?

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  55. Here in Louisville, KY, our nearest Kroger only had 22-25 pound turkeys. That was a little more than we wanted, because my son is smoking a brisket and spare ribs. But the local Value Market (long time neighborhood grocery) had 14-16 pound turkeys, so we're good.

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  56. And here we are with proof that, yes indeed, there ARE two different species of hairless biped on the planet: Homo Sapiens (us) and Homo Sap, the one lacking frontal lobes and opposable thumbs.

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  57. In Memphis/West Memphis the turkey bins are low, even at 1.77 to 1.99 lb. Friend of mine in KC spent 2.79/lb on a fresh turkey.
    I caught an early sale for 56c/lb
    Some shelves are iffy on stuff--gravy, pasta, cranberries were all thin on the ground-- at Kroger and WalMart both. But check back the next day.

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  58. That being said, if you are one of those people who wait until the day before Thanksgiving to do your Thanksgiving Day shopping, if some things are out of stock, that's on you --- the queen of procrastination is speaking from personal experience here.

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  59. I am frankly stuck on the guy with the cart of cheap Doritos and the astounding variety of Oreo's available for purchase now.

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  60. Except in our two stores here on our Island.
    NO Nabisco products... No RITZ, No SALTINES!!
    What am I supposed to smear my Peanut Butter on?

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  61. I have this crazy image in my head of one of the Senator's constituents reaching for a box of gravy when his words penetrate her brain and POOF! the gravy disappears. A form of hysterical blindness in which you see what your influencers tell you to see.

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  62. Ted Cruz us a lying crock of shit! I'm from northern California and we plenty of needed items for Thanksgiving dinner!
    BTW Happy Thanksgiving Jim Wright and family!! I love your recaps, thank you!!

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  63. This was sent to me by my cousin: Things I did not know:

    So, I spoke to people getting food at a food bank and here are some things I learned from those in need:
    1. Everyone donates Kraft Mac and Cheese in the box. They can rarely use it because it needs milk and butter which is hard to get from regular food banks.
    2. Boxed milk is a treasure, as kids need it for cereal which they also get a lot of.
    3. Everyone donates pasta sauce and spaghetti noodles.
    4. They cannot eat all the awesome canned veggies and soup unless you put a can opener in too or buy pop tops.
    5. Oil is a luxury but needed for Rice a-Roni which they also get a lot of.
    6. Spices or salt and pepper would be a real Christmas gift.
    7. Tea bags and coffee make them feel like you care.
    8. Sugar and flour are treats.
    9. They fawn over fresh produce donated by farmers and grocery stores.
    10. Seeds are cool in Spring and Summer because growing can be easy for some.
    11. They rarely get fresh meat.
    12. Tuna and crackers make a good lunch.
    13. Hamburger Helper goes nowhere without ground beef.
    14. They get lots of peanut butter and jelly but usually not sandwich bread.
    15. Butter or margarine is nice too.
    16. Eggs are a real commodity.
    17. Cake mix and frosting makes it possible to make a child’s birthday cake.
    18. Dishwashing detergent is very expensive and is always appreciated.
    19. Feminine hygiene products are a luxury and women will cry over that.
    20. Everyone loves Stove Top Stuffing.
    In all the years I have donated food at the Holidays, I bought what I thought they wanted, but have never asked. I am glad I did. If you are helping a Family this Christmas, maybe this can help you tailor it more. It does for me!

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  64. We happen to have one persistent shortage in my area (suburban Los Angeles). Not inside the stores. What I've been seeing since just before Halloween is a persistent shortage of *parking places* near the store entrances. My God! How far must we walk to the front door? But I suspect that this is a Los Angeles problem...

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  65. How to make turkey gravy:

    Remove turkey from roasting pan. Pour juices into a measuring cup and skim fat off the top. Put fat back in roasting pan and add an equal amount of flour. Stir in flour over low heat until lumps disappear. Gradually add remaining juices and keep stirring. Then, add more liquid (save the water from the potatoes or add chicken broth, or both). Keep stirring over low to medium heat until sufficiently thickened. It's npow ready to serve. Yum. Easy and so much better than fake gravy from a box or can.

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    Replies
    1. To make it all that much more savory use the giblets! Chop up the heart and kidneys, (discard the liver - it can make for a bitter taste,) add a cup of water and simmer in a covered saucepan with the neck for a few hours. I usually add some sage or poultry seasoning. Strain the liquid and add to the pan when you make the gravy. Yum!

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  66. In my area we have a shortage of Original Special K so I had to switch to corn flakes for my funeral potatoes topping. Thanks Obama. /s

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  67. Jim, have you read Fall by Neal Stephenson? Your guy on the phone reminds me of one bit in that book. But, everything reminds me of it, because all this. The bits are the chapters Moab and Road Trip (?), towards the beginning of the book and are a shining gem of sf in an otherwise meh book. I'll avoid spoilers, but man, it hits way too close to home.

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  68. The only shortages I've noticed here in the Colorado Rockies are turkey pieces. Haven't found any legs or thighs or fresh unprocessed turkey breasts for many months. I was alone at Thanksgiving and a turkey thigh would have made me happy. Couldn't justify a 20 pound bird which were plentiful. Oh well. I had salmon for Thanksgiving which is probably more historically accurate anyway.

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  69. To be fair, Ted was right about Fritos. For an entire month I could not find Fritos in this east TN town. There were plenty of Doritos and Tostitos -- in every conceivable shape and flavor.
    Plenty of potato chips in every conceivable flavor (both crinkled and ironed). But no Fritos -- original, scoops, barbecue, or cheese. I looked at the Kroger, Food City, the three local independent supermarkets, Walgreens CVS, and gas-station convenience stores. No Fritos. We had to forego chili for weeks. Maybe Ye'd is on to something. Democrats in the White House have obviously conspired against Frito-Lay to subvert the Frito factories. I have a Constitutional right to Fritos, so heads are gonna roll.

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