"It's Like a Soviet Store During 1981:" As America Confronts the Reality of Empty Shelves, Team Biden -- Including the National Media -- Assures Them the Empty Shelves Are All a Right-Wing Hallucination

It takes a British tabloid to accurately report on the shortages in the US, because the US media is criminal.

'It's like a Soviet store during 1981': Empty shelves appear at grocery stores across US as supply chain crisis and COVID convene to make basics like milk, bread, meat, canned soups and cleaning products hard to find

They brought evidence: Pictures.

This started an #BareShelvesBiden meme:

My own shelves are bare.

That's not because of Brandon.

It's a safety thing.

Jim Geraghty noted that while Brandon was bragging about supposedly fixing the supply chain problems, the shelves are understocked or even bare.

The national media is suppressing this fact by not reporting on it -- part of their secret agreement with the Brandon Administration to put a positive spin on economic news or, if that is impossible, suppress the news altogether.

But he notes that the local news frequently features bare-shelves stories.

All the national news broadcasts have to do to is reach out to their local affiliates and they'd have plenty of video and reportage to do bare-shelve stories -- but they don't want to.

The official word is that The Shelves Are Full and they are good little repeaters of Official State Propaganda.

Empty Shelves Disprove Biden's Supply-Chain Boasts https://t.co/9fxUQGQOww

A bit before Christmas, President Biden boasted that he had averted the supply-chain crisis: "The much-predicted crisis didn't occur. Packages are moving. Gifts are being delivered. Shelves are not empty."https://t.co/StBaYkGVsE

-- Jim Geraghty (@jimgeraghty) January 11, 2022

Back on December 22, White House chief of staff Ron Klain shared a New York Times article and declared that supply-chain problems were "an over-hyped narrative."https://t.co/StBaYkGVsE

-- Jim Geraghty (@jimgeraghty) January 11, 2022

And yet, you may have also noticed that your local store shelves still aren't restocked to their usual levels, or you may well be finding empty shelves.https://t.co/StBaYkGVsE

-- Jim Geraghty (@jimgeraghty) January 11, 2022

You know where you'll find a lot of coverage of empty shelves and supply chain problems? Local TV news affiliates.https://t.co/StBaYkGVsE pic.twitter.com/vlfXRa3dgS

-- Jim Geraghty (@jimgeraghty) January 11, 2022

And it's not just one region beset by particular labor shortages or bad weather -- Richmond, Atlanta, Portland, Daytona Beach, Houston, Dallas, Honolulu, Cape Cod...https://t.co/StBaYkGVsE

-- Jim Geraghty (@jimgeraghty) January 11, 2022

And it's not just groceries. Auto parts, housing supplies, cold medicines...https://t.co/StBaYkGVsE pic.twitter.com/dejRuMNeOc

-- Jim Geraghty (@jimgeraghty) January 11, 2022

No doubt, bad weather can slow shipments and block roads, exacerbating the supply-chain crisis. But in some places, there's something of a vicious cycle, in that supply-chain problems are exacerbating the ability to respond to bad weather.https://t.co/StBaYkGVsE pic.twitter.com/xoiVyshASj

-- Jim Geraghty (@jimgeraghty) January 11, 2022

When you add up all of these reports, it seems like a lot of genuine and glaring problems for the White House chief of staff to dismiss as just "an overhyped narrative"!https://t.co/StBaYkGVsE

-- Jim Geraghty (@jimgeraghty) January 11, 2022

You can find Biden defenders who insisting the Twitter hashtag "#BareShelvesBiden" is "artificially amplified by far-right users to manipulate the trending section." Fine, maybe they are, but consumers and local news aren't _hallucinating_ empty shelves.https://t.co/StBaYkGVsE

-- Jim Geraghty (@jimgeraghty) January 11, 2022

Businesses aren't _imagining_ this inability to get the supplies and parts they need. Supply chain complaints are not a national mass hysteria driven by a hashtag.https://t.co/StBaYkGVsE

-- Jim Geraghty (@jimgeraghty) January 11, 2022

The Biden team's reflex is that reports of problems are just right-wing propaganda. As with the border, inflation, Afghanistan, Covid-19, and the shortage of tests, we have to waste time convincing the Biden administration that the country's problems are actually real problems.

-- Jim Geraghty (@jimgeraghty) January 11, 2022

Or perhaps someone like Klain will tell us to be appreciative because we have "high class problems."https://t.co/StBaYkGVsE pic.twitter.com/zir8eLn4OA

-- Jim Geraghty (@jimgeraghty) January 11, 2022

Do better, Supply Chain.

Do better.

posted by Ace at 06:15 PM

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