No trucks flowing into NYC, no diesel being consumed. TAKE A GOOD LOOK, FELLAS.

[Jan van Eck + 7,558]

I invite all of you to take a good hard look at the live web-cam helpfully posted by the Fort Lee, New Jersey police department:  

https://www.webcamtaxi.com/en/usa/new-york/george-washington-bridge.html

The view is from West to East, and the toll plaza with the 22 lanes is the choke-point for all traffic flowing Northbound from New Jersey, USA into New York City on the other side of that bridge  (George Washington Bridge, which is a massive double-decker of 8 lanes per deck).    Nobody there.  

I can tell you from personal experience that this point is customarily totally choked, with the traffic backed up anywhere from one mile to eight miles, all just barely crawling.  They charge a toll of $12 to cross, so the NY Port Authority coffers are taking a pounding. 

The roadway is the Interstate 95, arguably the busiest in the country.  Everything headed into New England, up to Boston etc, pours through here.  Nothing is moving.  America, at least this part of it, is standing still.  What you are looking at is the visible sign of total economic collapse.  So:  how does the country recover from this?  And if nothing is moving, where does that leave the oil industry, the supplier of all that gasoline and especially diesel that gets burned moving all that freight? 

Edited April 11, 2020 by Jan van Eck
typing error

[Gerry Maddoux + 3,627]

26 minutes ago, Jan van Eck said:

Nothing is moving.  America, at least this part of it, is standing still.  What you are looking at is the visible sign of total economic collapse.

Thanks for posting this--it's a wakeup call, no doubt about it. Anyone who thought this was coming to a quick end was delusional in some way. 

There must be some very good minds working over how and when to get America moving again. Unless HCQ/Z really turns into a Silver Bullet, especially as prophylaxis, opening the country is going to come with a human toll: that dreaded "Second Wave" that Wuhan is experiencing. 

In my mind, used to considering the worst possible scenario but not dwelling on it, that's when we bottom out. It will come at a time when many people will have exhausted their relief payment, when irrational exuberance has lifted the stock market to blue-sky levels, and just when people are yipping in glee about a summer vacation. I think it was ORO who posted some informative models that, if extrapolated, show that happening in July. And man, if that second wave hits with a vengeance, it's going to bottom us out.

I think this is a propitious time for the big infrastructure plan that has been floated by the president. Get the young and middle-aged back to work. We will never have a better opportunity to rebuild our roadways and bridges. Do I have a selfish agenda? Maybe, as something like that will eat up a lot of diesel. But I'm actually pretty confident the oil situation is going to right itself: If the Saudis push on and there is no tariff, they will go bankrupt eventually; and if there is a tariff, as I'm beginning to expect, then we use domestic supply. 

America will get back to work. And play. But we won't work and play, during my lifetime, with the same attitude or in the same way. In a strange sort of way, this is another 911 moment--only this time the attack came from China, not Saudi Arabia.

Er, well, maybe both, as it happened. A one-two punch. The Saudis must be very proud to hit us when we're down.

Edited April 11, 2020 by Gerry Maddoux

[Jan van Eck + 7,558]

This is the webcam from the North Tower of one of the busiest airports in the USA - Altanta, Georgia, home of Delta Air Lines.  Enjoy watching the grass grow:

https://www.webcamtaxi.com/en/usa/georgia/hartsfield-jackson-atlanta-airport-north-tower.html

I just get the impression that people do not grasp just how much of a hit the USA is taking.  

The entire country has ground to a halt.  Does anyone seriously believe that some guys talking around some table are going to get oil consumption started up, and production sorted out?   I don't think so.  

This is huge, people.  There is not enough money printed - at least not yet - to deal with this.  The USA is in a world of hurt. 

Edited April 11, 2020 by Jan van Eck

[Eyes Wide Open + 3,539]

2 hours ago, Jan van Eck said:

This is the webcam from the North Tower of one of the busiest airports in the USA - Altanta, Georgia, home of Delta Air Lines.  Enjoy watching the grass grow:

https://www.webcamtaxi.com/en/usa/georgia/hartsfield-jackson-atlanta-airport-north-tower.html

I just get the impression that people do not grasp just how much of a hit the USA is taking.  

The entire country has ground to a halt.  Does anyone seriously believe that some guys talking around some table are going to get oil consumption started up, and production sorted out?   I don't think so.  

This is huge, people.  There is not enough money printed - at least not yet - to deal with this.  The USA is in a world of hurt.

 

 

.Yes it is, the goose that laid the golden egg is in bad shape. It is really hard to comment on this subject without going political. Yet I have some troubling questions that I cannot get out of my mind.

How does the US suffer a economic collapse and a world oil crisis in a one two punch. Think about that for awhile..what could cripple this country in such a short fashion it would seem fear and poverty.

Barr has come out openly and stated Trump was ambushed...I believe he coined it America's greatest tragedy. Now those words almost are numbing...has they been uttered two yrs ago one can only imagine the public rage from all sides.

Yet today here we are hysterical about a very bad virus also known as a flu. Being inflamed by the press along with one of our political parties. Meanwhile half of America can no longer pay there obligations. Where is the critical thinking..Almost all of our institutions are under severe stress...our response is to stay home and deepen this disaster.

In the end tensions and fear just grow exponentially.

Edited April 11, 2020 by Eyes Wide Open

[Jan van Eck + 7,558]

20 minutes ago, Eyes Wide Open said:

Barr has come out openly and stated Trump was ambushed

Barr is one of the most dangerous men in America.  As the Attorney General, he actually wants to abolish habeus corpus, and allow the State to hold anyone it wants, without charges or trial, for as long as it wants.   What a total lunatic!

[Dan Warnick + 6,100]

3 hours ago, Jan van Eck said:

What you are looking at is the visible sign of total economic collapse.

How the heck can anyone think collapse is not coming, or is not already here but not yet being reported?  No companies are reporting earnings yet.  What earnings?  What will happen to the market when GE finally capitulates and goes under (I hope like hell it doesn't happen, but do you think it can't?).  Wal-Mart, if they are still in business, can't use 400,000 GE retirees and another 100,000 laid off people.  Will there be any credit, large or small, anywhere?  United Airlines?  How many banks don't have cash and can't offer credit.  Do you understand negative interest rates?  Better study up on it.  Preserve cash folks.  What is a dollar going to be worth, domestically or internationally?  Please, people, get yourselves ready for the roughest seas any of us has ever seen.  Katy bar the door, and let's all hope this does not come to be.

 

[Eyes Wide Open + 3,539]

We are In agreement...what would motivate a man to make such a over reach is beyond my skill set. Actually that move would be career ending in any time of rational thinking. 

There has been so many breaches of trust it almost defies the minds ability to put things into any kind of context.

What would motivate a old man to step into the chit show that is being played out. 

Personally the US citzens lost so many civil liberties and privacy over the yrs it is almost mind numbing.

[Gerry Maddoux + 3,627]

These observations above are very astute. 

We will unfortunately skip right over recession and go into a depression. We may be there already. 

I agree completely that this is the time to preserve cash. The stock market moonshot--with the hub of international commerce smack in the middle of the dying fields--is one of the most bizarre things I have ever witnessed in my life!

I think of myself of an optimist but what is happening is beyond words. We are shut down. And we're almost certainly going to get absolutely drowned by the tsunami--the second wave. 

[Tom Kirkman + 8,860]

1 hour ago, Eyes Wide Open said:

Where is the critical thinking..Almost all of our institutions are under severe stress...our response is to stay home and deepen this disaster.

Yep

[Jan van Eck + 7,558]

Interstate 95 is the main US truck/car road from Florida to Maine, running through all the major coastal cities and carrying an immense river of freight.  One of the busiest points is Darien, Connecticut, usually chock-a-block with masses of traffic, basically a gigantic parking lot 30 miles long.  Here it is today:

Now this, people, is what "demand destruction" looks like..  Nobody out there.  I think even the cops have given up. I mean, why bother patrolling?  

Does anybody seriously think that society is going to be burning off billions of gallons of stockpiled gasoline any time soon?  Because I sure don't. 

Edited April 11, 2020 by Jan van Eck

[Jan van Eck + 7,558]

50 minutes ago, Dan Warnick said:

What will happen to the market when GE finally capitulates and goes under

GE Aviation is the major employer in Rutland, Vermont, with two plants that manufacture jet engine parts such as turbine blades and compressor wheels.   840 of 1200 workers are not on layoff.  Is that plant going to be up and running any time soon?   Nope.  take a look at the camera at Atlanta airport (link above).  Nobody is flying, the engines are not turning, nobody is going to be buying engine overhauls, for years to come, nobody needs parts, those GE factories have nothing to do outside of their military contracts for engines for blackhawk helicopters. 

Now, if you take 840 workmen out of Rutland, population 16,000, and no jobs, do they leave the State?  But of course.  So, who is going to buy those houses?   Peruvian migrants?   Mexican farm workers?  Maybe, Canadians?    

[Jan van Eck + 7,558]

27 minutes ago, Gerry Maddoux said:

And we're almost certainly going to get absolutely drowned by the tsunami--the second wave. 

Worse, our political leadership is like deer frozen in the headlights. 

[Dan Warnick + 6,100]

9 minutes ago, Jan van Eck said:

GE Aviation is the major employer in Rutland, Vermont, with two plants that manufacture jet engine parts such as turbine blades and compressor wheels.   840 of 1200 workers are not on layoff.  Is that plant going to be up and running any time soon?   Nope.  take a look at the camera at Atlanta airport (link above).  Nobody is flying, the engines are not turning, nobody is going to be buying engine overhauls, for years to come, nobody needs parts, those GE factories have nothing to do outside of their military contracts for engines for blackhawk helicopters. 

Now, if you take 840 workmen out of Rutland, population 16,000, and no jobs, do they leave the State?  But of course.  So, who is going to buy those houses?   Peruvian migrants?   Mexican farm workers?  Maybe, Canadians?    

Too true.  Do they leave the state?  And go where?  No jobs for those skilled workers in any other state.  No job, no income.  People with no income can't pay rent or the mortgage, at least not for very long.  Will landlords and banks let them go on living in their homes if they don't pay?  Cash is king.  Conserve cash.  That's what every company is trying to do now, and that is ALL they can do right now.  That and reduce the headcount.

Edited April 11, 2020 by Dan Warnick

[Ward Smith + 6,615]

2 hours ago, Jan van Eck said:

Barr is one of the most dangerous men in America.  As the Attorney General, he actually wants to abolish habeus corpus, and allow the State to hold anyone it wants, without charges or trial, for as long as it wants.   What a total lunatic!

If courts aren't open because people are in quarantine, what should happen, in your view? 

Quote

the department proposed that Congress grant the attorney general power to ask the chief judge of any district court to pause court proceedings “whenever the district court is fully or partially closed by virtue of any natural disaster, civil disobedience, or other emergency situation.”

In making the case for the change, the DOJ wrote that individual judges can currently pause proceedings during emergencies but that their proposal would make sure all judges in any particular district could handle emergencies “in a consistent manner.”

Right now, federal courts are clogged up with tens of thousands of spurious "asylum" claims, which in a mark of true lunacy allows illegal immigrants the right to habeus corpus they never earned! 

Ambulance chasing lawyers are happily using this disaster to ask for blanket dismissals of their cases, giving those illegals a quite literal "get out of jail free card".

[Jan van Eck + 7,558]

21 minutes ago, Ward Smith said:

If courts aren't open because people are in quarantine, what should happen, in your view? 

For criminal defendants, same as what happens now, when they are injured during capture.  A CCTV camera is brought to the hospital bed and the arraignment is held by closed-circuit television.  

The Court itself is always open.  There is always a Judge available to hear arraignments and bail hearings.  If the defendant is suspected of being infected, and thus quarantined, then a remote proceeding is held. 

24 minutes ago, Ward Smith said:

Right now, federal courts are clogged up with tens of thousands of spurious "asylum" claims, which in a mark of true lunacy allows illegal immigrants the right to habeus corpus they never earned! 

I despair of bringing you up to speed on how the US legal system works.  I know full well that your mind is made up, what I do not know or grasp is who fed you the pablum that led you to believe what you wrote here.  For the readers, I would hasten to state that Ward is mistaken, that is emphatically not how the US legal system works. 

[Ward Smith + 6,615]

55 minutes ago, Jan van Eck said:

For criminal defendants, same as what happens now, when they are injured during capture.  A CCTV camera is brought to the hospital bed and the arraignment is held by closed-circuit television.  

The Court itself is always open.  There is always a Judge available to hear arraignments and bail hearings.  If the defendant is suspected of being infected, and thus quarantined, then a remote proceeding is held. 

I despair of bringing you up to speed on how the US legal system works.  I know full well that your mind is made up, what I do not know or grasp is who fed you the pablum that led you to believe what you wrote here.  For the readers, I would hasten to state that Ward is mistaken, that is emphatically not how the US legal system works. 

Dude, Give it up. I know my country's law's. 

Quote

The Habeas Corpus Suspension Clause of the Constitution prevents the government from suspending access to the writ of habeas corpus except in certain extraordinary circumstances involving rebellion or invasion of the country. Habeas has a long and important history, tracing back to England, as a primary check against the government’s ability to detain people without legal justification.

As the Supreme Court has explained, the framers of the Constitution “viewed freedom from unlawful restraint as a fundamental precept of liberty, and they understood the writ of habeas corpus as a vital instrument to secure that freedom.” The Suspension Clause guarantees that this “vital instrument” remains available, even when it is inconvenient to the government.

Looking back on a century of its case law in 2001, the Supreme Court held that because of the Suspension Clause, “some ‘judicial intervention in deportation cases’ is unquestionably ‘required by the Constitution.’”

Applying these precedents, the Ninth Circuit held that asylum seekers like Vijayakumar have the right to federal court habeas review of their expedited removal orders. Acknowledging Congress’s interest and authority over immigration matters, the court nonetheless struck down limitations on judicial review over expedited removal, explaining that the immigration power could not “overwhelm the ‘fundamental procedural protections of habeas corpus . . . , a right of first importance.’”

 

[Jan van Eck + 7,558]

4 minutes ago, Ward Smith said:

Dude, Give it up. I know my country's law's. 

Come on now, Ward, what does that have to do with the rather truculent comment you wrote about, and I quote you, " which in a mark of true lunacy allows illegal immigrants the right to habeus corpus they never earned! "

"Earned?"   What on earth are you talking about?   Habeus corpus has nothing to do with being "earned."  That is emphatically NOT how the US legal system works.  If you are on US soil, then the Constitution applies to you.  Period.  And THAT, my lad, is "your country's laws." 

[Ward Smith + 6,615]

19 minutes ago, Jan van Eck said:

Come on now, Ward, what does that have to do with the rather truculent comment you wrote about, and I quote you, " which in a mark of true lunacy allows illegal immigrants the right to habeus corpus they never earned! "

"Earned?"   What on earth are you talking about?   Habeus corpus has nothing to do with being "earned."  That is emphatically NOT how the US legal system works.  If you are on US soil, then the Constitution applies to you.  Period.  And THAT, my lad, is "your country's laws." 

And that my friend, is the ridiculous component of "my country's laws". Good for the DOJ to try and recover us from the lunacy of activist judges selling this country down the river. Why the hell does just setting foot on US soil entitle anyone to anything? Did their ancestors like mine, trace their lineage back to the Daughters of the American Revolution? Can they point to an unbroken chain of ancestors serving in our military as I can? Can they prove they've paid millions in taxes as I can? I'm 100% on board with legal immigration. Sneaking into the country illegally and claiming "all ye all ye out's in free" the second you're on US soil? I'm not on board with that. There's a legitimate path to citizenship here and we generously accept more than any other country in the world every year. But the legal system is being abused by the illegal.

In ancient Rome a person wishing to acquire citizenship had to earn it. Soldiers had to survive 20 years in the legions or merchants had to purchase the right to be called citizen. What happens to this country when the economy of Mexico utterly collapses and millions of their citizens come streaming across our border nonstop? The democrats would happily hand them voter ID cards with instructions to vote democrat forevermore. Never mind the permanent damage to our economy and institutions forevermore. 

[Jan van Eck + 7,558]

8 minutes ago, Ward Smith said:

In ancient Rome a person wishing to acquire citizenship had to earn it.

You are confusing three different concepts.  First, the concept of Habeas Corpus.  Second, the concept of immigration.  Third, the concept of citizenship.  

For you, these are emotional issues.  For me, these are strictly legal issues.  I am not going to get into it with you, as your outburst tells me all I need to know of what you are coming from.  So I will leave you to ponder two aspects.  (1)  Some 35% of migrants who end up in the USA eventually leave, moving on to "somewhere else."    For them, the USA is emphatically not the great panacea you view it as. Your idea that migrants want "citizenship" is well off the mark.  I have lived here for decades and am not a citizen, and I have neither desire nor intention of ever taking that step, I am a staunch Monarchist.   (2)  You have not, in your mental construct, designated any place for the infant or toddler, who is brought ashore.  The toddler does not arrive of free will.  Yet the toddler has inherent rights under the US Constitution.  Unless you want to just scrap the US Constitution and the entire body of laws built upon it    (and if that is your end goal, fine, but let's be honest about it), you will have to design a protocol for the toddler.  There is nothing for the toddler to "earn," that one is unable to do so.   So, now what?  

Again, I am not going to debate your worldview, Ward.  But please do not preach to me that I am some imbecile about US Laws.  In all candor, that is unreasonable.  I do not denigrate your views, but let's try to separate political views from legal realities.  Cheers.

[Jan van Eck + 7,558]

20 minutes ago, Ward Smith said:

Why the hell does just setting foot on US soil entitle anyone to anything?

Because the Constitution says so.  And that is what makes America unique, the concept of "equal protection of  and under the laws."   Now, if you want to scrap that, OK, then at least we know where you stand on the idea of Equal Protection, but if you do that, then you no longer have the USA.  What you have is "something else."  Perhaps, Bolivia?  

And if you are good with that, then fine, you are perfectly entitled to set up some political party with the objective of scrapping the US Constitution.  That is yet another of the great and unique charms of America, everyone is free to advance their own ideas.  You cannot do that anywhere else on the face of the planet, OK maybe you can in Antarctica, or out on the old whaling station on South Georgia Island, but it tends to be limited. If you like a free and dynamic land and country, then yes, "setting foot" on US soil emphatically does entitle the arrivalist to the protections of the United States Constitution.  And, for the record, I say Hurrah! to that!

[Eyes Wide Open + 3,539]

4 hours ago, Jan van Eck said:

Worse, our political leadership is like deer frozen in the headlights. 

Ohh not at all, timing is everything in this upside world in which we come from.

A note to this president and his actions.

What he did in Syria was a event some will write to someday. That conflict is over and it will stay over. Unless one would entertain the notion Putin and Erdowan suddenly become best friends.

Other than that Russia has domain over a war torn nation,oil fields that are under the watch of a 15000 troops...bomber squadrons and how many jet fighters?

To exhasburate this scenario those fields are not only in ruins the oil underneath them is of little value for quite awhile to come...

There conflict has ended.

[Ward Smith + 6,615]

14 minutes ago, Jan van Eck said:

Because the Constitution says so

No. It. Doesn't. 

 Show me the words where it says all rights occur because you've set foot here. It took multiple interpretations by multiple activist judges to torture the words in that document into the meaning they chose. 

I don't want this to hijack your thread, we can open a new subject if you wish, but I doubt you do. We can argue history all you want, I'm just as well versed as you. Even the right to vote wasn't automatically conferred on "citizens" but only free landowners. There were plenty of indentured servants and unfortunately slaves disenfranchised by that. 

[0R0 + 6,251]

5 hours ago, Jan van Eck said:

Barr is one of the most dangerous men in America.  As the Attorney General, he actually wants to abolish habeus corpus, and allow the State to hold anyone it wants, without charges or trial, for as long as it wants.   What a total lunatic!

Eliminate the DOJ? drop its standing in court so that it can't bring cases on its own behalf.  Barr is crackers. Make sure that nobody ever has the power the DOJ does. Not to speak of what Barr wants.

[0R0 + 6,251]

58 minutes ago, Ward Smith said:

And that my friend, is the ridiculous component of "my country's laws". Good for the DOJ to try and recover us from the lunacy of activist judges selling this country down the river. Why the hell does just setting foot on US soil entitle anyone to anything? Did their ancestors like mine, trace their lineage back to the Daughters of the American Revolution? Can they point to an unbroken chain of ancestors serving in our military as I can? Can they prove they've paid millions in taxes as I can? I'm 100% on board with legal immigration. Sneaking into the country illegally and claiming "all ye all ye out's in free" the second you're on US soil? I'm not on board with that. There's a legitimate path to citizenship here and we generously accept more than any other country in the world every year. But the legal system is being abused by the illegal.

In ancient Rome a person wishing to acquire citizenship had to earn it. Soldiers had to survive 20 years in the legions or merchants had to purchase the right to be called citizen. What happens to this country when the economy of Mexico utterly collapses and millions of their citizens come streaming across our border nonstop? The democrats would happily hand them voter ID cards with instructions to vote democrat forevermore. Never mind the permanent damage to our economy and institutions forevermore. 

I take the reading of the constitution as constricting the authority of government to as close to nothing as is possible. While reading the rights of individuals as expansively as can be implied by the words and intent.

The spirit of the constitution was that of viewing the government as a necessary evil and came from its history as being that of a foreign power, The English King.  It was granted the narrowest of authorities and the rights of individuals were protected as best the framers could think of. That said, Jefferson expected government to expand its powers despite it all and have to be repeatedly overthrown in revolution till the political class gets the message. 

I entirely oppose your idea of limited rights. 

[0R0 + 6,251]

46 minutes ago, Jan van Eck said:

I am a staunch Monarchist.

Which monarch?

2nd, ewww...