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Credit: teejaw.com

In many ways, the Age of Obama ushered in many changes, but fell short of the “fundamental transformation”—translation: socialism—of America Mr. Obama and his fellow travelers so ardently desired.  As it began, Obama was careful not to say what he really intended.  Thus did unrestrained and ruinous deficit spending become “investment.”  Thus did disastrous, destructive policies become “progress.”  But as those interminable eight years wore on, the mask occasionally slipped, and Democrats/Socialists/Communists began to say what they meant and intended.

Fast forward to 2020 and the situation was reversed: D/S/Cs occasionally lapsed back into carefully guarded euphemisms so the Deplorables wouldn’t catch on to what they really wanted to give them—good and hard—but for the most part, they no longer cared what Normal Americans thought.  They’d come to regard them as subjects, and believed the inevitable ascent to absolute rule of D/S/Cs unstoppable, the 2020 election being confirmation of their superiority and intention to end run the rule of law.  Circa 2021, they’re telling Normals exactly what they’re going to do to—not for—them, as Fox News reports:

The Washington Post was ripped Tuesday after publishing a piece calling on ‘spoiled’ Americans to stop ranting about short-staffed businesses and supply chain issues, and instead lower their expectations in the hope that things will  get straightened out.

Micheline Maynard
credit: youtube

‘Time for some new, more realistic expectations,’ columnist Micheline Maynard wrote after describing how Americans were used to fast service and easy access to consumer products until the coronavirus pandemic disrupted the supply chain. ‘American consumers, their expectations pampered and catered to for decades, are not accustomed to inconvenience.’

Maynard claimed that consumers would be doing themselves a favor by ‘consciously lowering expectations’ instead of taking their frustrations out on shop owners and delivery people. She also described how the disruptions were affecting business owners from their perspective.

She then suggested the disruptions could also affect the publication of a new book she was writing, adding that ‘paper shortages, worker shortages and the traffic jams at shipping ports’ were ‘endangering holiday books sales.’

Now that’s just outrageous, outrageous and unacceptable!  It’s one thing for Normals to be unable to find toilet paper, meat and other kinds of “food” the unsophisticated eat out there in Flyover Country, but for one of the self-imagined elite to miss a publication deadline?!  For the ungrateful Normals to be unable to buy their book for the holidays?!  Inconceivable!  The D/S/C Party Central Planning Commission must take action!

‘All I can do is hope for the best. Like everybody else. And keep those expectations reasonable. Eventually the supply chain will get straightened out,’ Maynard wrote.

‘American consumers might have been spoiled, but generations of them have also dealt with shortages of some kind … Now it’s our turn to make adjustments,’ she added.

Unsurprisingly, many Normals were not sufficiently grateful for Maynard’s wisdom and her unlimited compassion for their plight:

Well, not if you can manufacture your own reality and force others to live in it…

It is that—in real reality…

That’s unquestionably true…

Amazing how that happened; must be bad luck…

“Shut up,” they explained…

And yes, D/S/Cs are actually telling us waiting for hours in line to buy a loaf of bread—if any is available—is actually a good thing.  It fosters a real sense of community:

People who actually lived under Soviet rule have a somewhat different opinion, as do contemporary Venezuelans, Cubans (go here for a brief video of a 36 year-old Cuban visiting a Walmart for the first time) and North Koreans.  Fortunately, as the NY Post notes, the White House has explained it all for us:

Boiling down the concerns of millions of Americans about shortages of everything from consumer goods to food to holiday gifts from a supply chain crisis to its minimum effect, a White House official insisted Monday that the biggest impact will be a lack of choice.

Concerns have been raised by lawmakers on both sides of the aisle and businesses about the massive supply chain disruptions as the holiday season quickly approaches, with some experts suggesting consumers start shopping early due delays and lack of inventory.

Liz Reynolds
credit: MITnews

But during a call with governors’ representatives on Monday, Liz Reynolds, special assistant to the president for manufacturing and economic development, told the gubernatorial staffers, ‘You won’t be able to get the jacket in 15 colors, but you will be able to get the jacket,’ a source on the National Governors Association call told The Post.

Ooooooh.  So we’ll still get toilet paper, we’ll just get one roll a month and have to get used to using only two squares?  It’s that kind of “realistic expectation?”  Gee thanks, Liz.  Your enlightened leadership inspires all the little people.  And so does the enlightened leadership of Transportation Secretary Pete Buttegieg, when he bothers to come in to work—he’s been on paternity (maternity?) leave the last two months and folks only just noticed the other day–that is:

‘Part of what’s happening isn’t just the supply side, it’s the demand side,’ Buttigieg said on CNN’s “State of the Union” Sunday. ‘Demand is off the charts, retail sales are through the roof. … Demand is up because income is up, because the president has successfully guided this economy out of the terrifying recession.’

Oooooh.  So the economy—and pretty much everything else–is falling apart–that’s kind of terrifying–but that’s a good thing, and so are sky-high and increasing prices for and shortages of essentials, because of Joe Biden’s brilliant economic policies!  What progress!  See why we need self-imagined elite like Pete (hey, that rhymes!)?  Could you, gentle readers, have possibly figured that out for yourself?  Here are more of Pete’s brilliant explanations of the supply chain problem, which isn’t a problem because of Biden’s brilliance:

What I can tell you is that we are doing everything for the short term and the long term and we will work through the factors that present themselves as challenges in the terms that we encounter on everything.  … The significant problems are not problem of insignificance because they are not important problems, they are significant challenges because of the importance of their significance and we are addressing them in both long and short term solutions. … This is important, not just morally but also economically, because the challenges are what we need to recognize as important maintenance issue challenges.

See?  So the long and short term challenges are insignificantly significant when encountered morally and economically and maintenance issue challenged!  See how simple it all is?  We really are led by the best and the brightest.  It’s true Pete’s only real qualification for his job is his abject bungling of a bike trail project while mayor of South Bend, Indiana, that and his gayness, but did you really expect to be able to understand such complex issues, this being a “high class” problem and all?

Klain is Temporary President Biden’s high class Chief of Staff, and some think, the real president…

But because I’m one of those ungrateful normals, I try sooooo hard to understand the brilliance of my betters, as I did in California: Leisure and License:  

There is one very specific regional issue driving the problem.  Read on:

The trucking issue with California LA ports, ie the Port of Los Angeles (POLA) and the Port of Long Beach (POLB), is that all semi tractors have to be current with new California emissions standards.  As a consequence, that mean trucks cannot be older than 3 years if they are to pick up or deliver containers at those ports.  This issue wipes out approximately half of the fleet trucks used to move containers in/out of the port.  Operating the port 24/7 will not cure the issue, because all it does is pile up more containers that sit idle as they await a limited number of trucks to pick them up.  THIS is the central issue.

Hmmmmm.  Even a non-elite, low class Flyover Country dweller like me can see how this might be a problem.  So can the God and gun clingers at The Daily Signal:

In Los Angeles, there is a lack of workers available to unload and load container ships, and a lack of truck drivers to transport the cargo from the ports to inland destinations. To make matters worse, most of the warehouse space near the ports is packed, leaving nowhere to put new imports when they arrive.

How did this happen?

California had some of the most stringent COVID-19 limitations of any state in 2020 when the horrendous backlog began. There was a need for more workers as demand for imported goods was skyrocketing, but California had far fewer available due to drastic government restrictions.

In addition, overly generous government unemployment payouts reduced the need or incentive for people to work, reducing the available supply of willing truckers or longshoremen.

When the supply chain is pinched like this, inflation rears its ugly head.

So it’s not all the fault of Normal Americans and their unrealistic expectations?  We can believe our own lyin’ eyes instead of government?

Final Thoughts:  We can be quite certain Ms. Maynard does not expect to be inconvenienced, except perhaps her royalty checks might be a bit delayed.  We can also be certain Ms. Reynolds–I hope she’ll forgive me for not knowing her pronouns—does not for a moment expect to be denied her choice of jacket color.  Shortages and regulations are for the little people–who all right (left) thinking people despise–not the self-imagined, high class, elite.

Americans are quite willing to adjust their expectations when necessary.  They do it every day.  Few of us began life with unimaginable, unearned wealth.  Most Americans know the sting of empty bank accounts with plenty of month left.  They know what it is to struggle, and through long, patient hard work, to better their lives, perhaps to have money left over at the end of the month, perhaps even to be able to save a bit.  They don’t worry about buying the latest car model; they worry about keeping their 10 year old beater running.  They know they’re not always going to be able to find exactly the style of jacket they want in the color they prefer–when they can afford it.  That’s reality–real reality–and they live it every day.

That’s why, in part, they become really annoyed when self-imagined elite dimwits like Maynard and Reynolds lecture them about reduced expectations.

The rest of their annoyance stems from their voluntary payment of taxes, for which they get people like Reynolds’ lectures, and their involuntary payment of unlegislated taxes in the form of runaway inflation.  They don’t mind adjusting their expectations when it’s necessary, when it’s in response to their own errors or the natural order, but when it’s not, when it’s due to the incompetence and/or malice of their self-imagined betters, they tend to get a bit touchy about it.

They particularly get touchy when government does it to them, and government functionaries like Reynolds, festooned with credentials but no obvious common sense, decency or empathy, introduce them to D/S/C reality, and try to force them to live in it.  They don’t mind not always being able to find exactly what they want, but they do kind of like things like toilet paper and pasta, of any brand.

To their warped credit, people like Reynolds are telling the truth.  When D/S/Cs are in power–and they expect to always be in power–Americans are going to have to adjust their expectations.  They’re not going to be able to expect secure borders, prosperity, individual liberty, the rule of law, public safety, bodily integrity, availability of daily necessities, and just about everything else free citizens in a constitutional republic have every right to expect because they’ve sacrificed and earned it.  D/S/Cs are admitting it, and what are you going to do about it you systemically racist, domestic terrorist, insurrectionist hater?

Normal Americans work hard—damned hard—and have earned everything they have.  Under Donald Trump, they saw just how good things could be, the just rewards they worked so hard to earn finally manifest.  They understand well what Robert A. Heinlein was saying:

Throughout history, poverty is the normal condition of man. Advances which permit this norm to be exceeded — here and there, now and then — are the work of an extremely small minority, frequently despised, often condemned, and almost always opposed by all right-thinking people. Whenever this tiny minority is kept from creating, or (as sometimes happens) is driven out of a society, the people then slip back into abject poverty.

This is known as ‘bad luck.’

Normal Americans believe their own lyin’ eyes, and not Biden, Maynard or Reynolds’.  They really resent it when politicians impose undeserved, unnecessary “bad luck” on them.  They know when they have to deal with their own screw ups; that’s just taking adult responsibility.  They’re not, however, willing to deal with government’s  maliciously imposed “bad luck.”