Truckers, New York and FAFO in action
Will MAGA Truckers give NYC an object lesson in FAFO?
Actions have consequences. Or, if you prefer, F*ck Around and Find Out (FAFO).
I realize that’s a wretchedly old-fashioned idea in today’s progressive era, especially if you have that magic D after your name, but it occasionally still applies. It may even apply to New York City, at the hands of the truckers NYC depends on to keep it alive.
On Friday, trucker @Chicago1Ray posted a video on X that exploded, picking up over 500K views before he took it down because in his own words “my grandson saw it on TikTok” and “I’m no figurehead.” In that now-deleted video, he said he’d been talking with other truckers and, as of Monday the 19th, they were going to refuse to carry loads into New York City. Their reason? The obvious lawfare against President Trump, specifically the $364 million fraud judgement that was handed down Friday the 16th.
Chicago Ray obviously struck a nerve, because #BoycottNYC and similar hashtags began trending, and moved up and down the Trending lists all weekend. A series of videos started popping up across social media made by other truckers intending to do the same thing.
The national and international press picked it up. Influencers like Tim Pool chimed in. President Trump posted about it on his Truth Social channel. People began to notice, and think about what it might mean.
Of course, there was (and is ongoing) pushback from media outlets, and the army of troll bots have been unleashed to squash, disinfo and Community Notes these pro-trucker, pro-Trump voices…but so far it hasn’t done much of anything except to further annoy people.
Key words: “so far.”
At the heart of the matter is last Friday’s decision by Democrat Judge Arthur Engoron that pronounced Trump, his two oldest sons and a business associate guilty of fraud and fined them collectively $373 million—$364 million being the fine on Trump personally. With the 9% interest that can be levied on the fine, it could be nearly $450 million dollars before the case can be appealed.
Engoron wrote that Trump and his company were “likely to continue their fraudulent ways” without the financial penalties and other controls he imposed. Engoron concluded that Trump and his co-defendants “failed to accept responsibility” and that experts who testified on his behalf “simply denied reality.”
“This is a venial sin, not a mortal sin,” Engoron went on in his 92-page opinion. “They did not rob a bank at gunpoint. Donald Trump is not Bernard Madoff. Yet, defendants are incapable of admitting the error of their ways.”
This despite the fact that the very banks who were allegedly defrauded suffered no losses, had done their own due diligence prior to making the loans, fully agreed to the loans, were paid back in fully (most of the payoff being made early), and testified on Trump’s behalf.
Apparently, everybody being happy and making money is somehow against New York law—as interpreted by a rabidly partisan judge with an ethically questionable history, in a deep blue city, at the insistence of a rabidly partisan (or maybe just “rabid”) New York Attorney General who ran on a platform of “I’m going to get Trump” (and whose own real estate dealings and other sources of income are highly suspicious for the same type of fraud for which Trump was just convicted—and a few more, besides).
The decision generated so much controversy and fear about the chilling effect the verdict would have on other investors and businesses that New York Governor and Democrat Kathy Hochul took to the airwaves to reassure other real estate developers they wouldn’t be targeted like Trump because of the “extraordinary, unusual circumstance” and “because they’re very different than Donald Trump and his behavior”—i.e., they’re not challenging the current regime by running for President as a Republican. Or, they’re just not Donald J. Trump.
It apparently didn’t occur to Governor Hochul that her reassurance all but admitted that Trump was specifically targeted for political reasons, and probably did more harm than good. Shark Tank's Kevin O’Leary went on Neil Cavuto’s show and said, ”I would NEVER invest in New York now! And I'm not the only one saying that!"
O'Leary said Governor Kathy Hochul's "words fall on deaf ears to everybody. There's nothing she can say to justify this decision,” and "this is a New York problem now.”
It certainly is a New York problem now. According to NYC’s Food Policy Center, 95% of all of NYC’s food is brought in by truck. Zero Hedge reprinted a graphic from CDL Life that predicted what the effects of a total trucking stoppage would have, and the number of days it would take for those effects to be felt. Just to summarize:
Within 1 day, shortages of medical supplies to hospitals and fuel to some service stations will appear. Just-in-time manufacturers will start to feel the lack of components, and U.S. Mail and other package delivery services will cease, and some food shortages will appear.
Within 2-3 days, medical and other supplies will continue to dwindle. Supplies of essentials—bottled water, powered milk, formula, diapers, fresh produce—will begin to dry up. ATMs will run out of cash, as will banks. Service stations will run dry, and container ships will sit idly in port because there’s no way to move their goods out of the City.
By the end of the 1st week, essentially all private automobile travel will cease, and hospitals will begin to run out of oxygen and essential medicines.
It just gets worse from there, as you can imagine.
Obviously, it won’t get that bad this week, because a complete stoppage of trucking into and within New York City won’t happen. It’d be foolish to assume that 100% of all trucking into and out of NYC will cease—it won’t. Many truckers simply can’t afford to stop carrying loads into NYC because their livelihoods and families depend on it. There’s also a certain inertia built into the system, with stores having a few days of supplies on hand in their stockrooms.
But, with 19 million mouths to feed, more or less (and let’s not forget all those “migrants” and “asylum seekers” who have flocked or been bussed into sanctuary NYC), all of whom want to keep eating, it won’t take very many truckers staying away before things become…inconvenient. I don’t have any hard figures. I doubt anyone does. Is the magic number 10%? 15%? At some point, as this thing grows, a tipping point will be reached. The question then becomes “what happens next?”
Right now, the truckers boycott is in its earliest stages. It’s not organized, has no leadership, and is mostly being coordinated by social media and that old stand-by, CB radio. It’s only a few operators thus far, but all the signs are that it’s picking up steam because a LOT of truckers are MAGA Patriots and they are NOT happy. The completely bogus E. Jean Carroll verdict was bad enough, but this no-fraud fraud case is so blatantly political that, as the man said years ago, “I’m mad as hell, and I’m not going to take it anymore.”
Chicago Ray doesn’t want to be the figurehead of this movement, but it may not need one. Truckers, by the very nature of the job, tend to be highly independent creatures. This boycott seems to be taking on a life of its own, and there are a lot of other MAGA Patriots who will support them—just like regular Canadians did for Canadian truckers during their recent protests.
Now, let me make a few predictions based on previous situations, especially natural disasters like hurricanes, and the rather predictable government responses to them.
When the first food, water, medicine, infant formula and diaper shortages pop up, there will be panic buying, stocking up and hoarding—some of which has probably already started. Being the good little statists they are, the state and local governments will naturally pass laws to prevent this—anti-price gouging and purchase-limit laws being the two most likely. As always, these will actually make a bad situation worse by removing the profit motive from budding capitalists (where there’s a buck to be made, they’ll find a way), fueling a black market/underground economy (hey, man; want to score some Pampers? How about Doritos? I got what you need, man…) and increasing the chances of flash-mob food riots.
It goes without saying that spontaneous outbreaks of self-awarded “reparations” will become more and more frequent, not just for essentials but for iPhones, Gucci, Nike and other bling.
It’s likely the NY National Guard will be mobilized, first to truck in medical supplies and food, then to control order as the natives get restless. It’s probable we’ll see more and more “mostly peaceful protests” taking place.
In short order, everyone who can GTFO of NYC will—and as Hurricane Katrina and other catastrophes have shown, a substantial percentage of them just won’t bother to come back. Buh bye, tax base!
Meanwhile, as long as the supplies of Brie & screw-cap Chardonnay hold out in the Upper East Side and the baristas don’t run out of beans, life will go on pretty much as usual—until a few enterprising scholars from the less-blessed parts of the city realize they can go on expeditions in search of goodies. As time passes and their local shops are picked clean, they’ll be forced to venture further and further afield, and that’s where things could get really interesting.
I doubt we’ll see any significant outbreaks of AOC-inspired Eat The Rich cannibalism…but for many of these scholars both native-born and newly arrived, cannibalism is part of their ethnic heritage. It’s possible that, given time and sufficient hunger, they will embrace that heritage and return to their roots. Since denying them the vibrancy of their heritage would be a priori evidence of whiteness, white supremacy and RACISS beyond belief, I for one am prepared to vigorously condemn those who block the full expression of these sub-Saharan American’s ethnic heritage, regardless of their documentation status!
*insert innocent look #6—butter-wouldn’t-melt smile with just a hint of smirk, one eyebrow half-raised—here*
Given the tendency of Banana Republics to overreact horribly when the plebes misbehave, it’s easily within the realm of possibility that as the situation worsens, so will the strictness of imposed controls by both the City and State of New York. These efforts will fail, not least because these strict controls will be imposed not on the elites, but on “protected classes” who have become accustomed to silly things like laws and rules not applying to them because of their special status. When woke policies and harsh reality clash, with lawyers for both sides flocking to protect the “rights” of those who were “just trying to survive” or “feed their families” or…
*Note to self: stock up on popcorn ASAP*
I also expect a lot of pressure to be brought against the truckers themselves in short order, and many of them will indeed cave—to pressure, threats, or offers of greatly increased wages to make the haul into what will rapidly become a combat zone. The Regime will almost certainly count on this pressure to break the boycott, and it may. Or, it may not—at least, not before NYC’s own residents do to the City what General Sherman did to Atlanta.
*Note to self: LOTS of popcorn*
In theory, this has the potential to ripple out from NYC very quickly. As the eastern financial center of the nation, if bands of scholars start rampaging down Wall Street, it can’t help but make the markets quiver. When there’s no arugula nor decent steak to be had, or when roving bands of scholars “enrich” the elite’s areas with their diversity, it’ll be serious! When the elites are inconvenienced, the politicians and bureaucrats that exist to serve them will be forced to (over)react. That, truth be told, may be what some in the Regime are waiting/hoping for.
Think about it: a crisis, precipitated by those deplorable, clinger, threats to our democracy MAGAs. Those wretched Truckers for Trump! How dare they? I’d imagine the scripts for MSNBC’s hosts are already being polished for the martial law crackdown a NYC meltdown will bring. And just think how much easier it’ll be to “fortify” an election if they don’t actually have to pretend to have one!
Will it come to that? I hope not, because only America’s enemies—including all those whose goal has been the “fundamental transformation” of the nation into a third-world shithole—will benefit, and I don’t want to see that happen.
What will it take to stop it? I’m not sure. No one’s spoken up for the truckers to say what it’d take for them to go back to business as usual. Given the propensity for those who stand up against the Regime to get no-knocked, SWATed, arrested & gulaged, “suicided” or otherwise inconvenienced, a Face and a Voice for the truckers may not be allowed to emerge.
But, AG James and Judge Engoron may find themselves suddenly not as beloved by the NYC in-crowd as they are now, once the boroughs start burning. Disbarring, defrocking and/or perp-walking James and/or Engoron might help, especially as throwing them under the bus while Trump’s appeals are cooking would be an easy step for the Powers That Be to take. Metaphorically putting their heads on pikes before the mob does it literally, then getting them out of the city under cover of darkness might actually be better for their health and safety than the alternative(s).
Certainly throwing out the E. Jean Carroll & fraud judgements on appeal would go a long way towards mollifying MAGA, but that will take time to percolate through the appeals process—and if enough truckers carry through with the boycott, NYC may not have that time. It’s not like NYC didn’t already have enough on its collective plate, with all those “migrants” and “asylum seekers” strengthening and enriching the City with their diversity.
In the meantime, it seems that an organic trucker boycott of NYC is actually happening, and it should continue to gather steam over the next couple of weeks at least. So, I suppose we can only stock up ourselves, and see what happens.
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