Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukkah from Autonomous Truck(er)s

Media to Share and some announcements.

As 2024 draws to a close, I hope you and your families are enjoying good company and the best that this particular season has to offer. I am grateful for the 10 inches of snow we have accumulated around the homestead over the past few days, and that tomorrow, my father and his wife will be here to break bread with us. The woodstove is roaring, and my children eye the Christmas Tree with anticipation.

While we are here, I’d also like to acknowledge that things aren’t always so good for everyone over the holidays - a good friend lost his father the other evening, some other friends are facing the challenge of a prematurely born child (26 weeks, say a prayer!) and many of my colleagues back home in Canada remain in the crosshairs of a vicious campaign of lawfare, or are behind bars for nothing else but standing up for the rights you once held near and dear. On that note, I want to thank all of my readers and listeners who have been following the travesty of injustice that is The Coutts Four story, and those of you who have donated to their legal fund, or wrote them letters while in jail. For more on that, read here.

I’ve got a couple of short pieces of media to share with you, one a Newsweek Op-ed I wrote last week, as well as a podcast I was invited to appear on with my friends from Compact magazine.

The Biden Administration, on its way out the door, proves to us once again why they and the Democrats have never been friends to truckers, or workers in general, with a pretty odious and unnecessary increase in work visas issued to foreigners.

Remember, I usually have no hand in the final decision on titles -

https://www.newsweek.com/biden-just-gave-final-middle-finger-working-class-way-out-opinion-2003589

Some snippets

How bad have things gotten for trucking? The online trucking industry magazine FreightWaves has an entire section of their website dedicated to nothing but trucking company bankruptcies and truck driver layoffs. A quick scan through the most recent dozen of 82 articles for 2024 alone show that over 4,000 truckers in the United States were laid off in October and November, and thousands more are at risk of being laid off as the companies they work for seek bankruptcy protection. This number doesn't include many self employed truckers whose business closures are much more difficult to track.

Given this fact, what on earth would cause DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas to push for more visas for foreign truckers? He gave us a window into his thinking recently in a November press release. "There are employers across the country that would suffer greatly without H-2B workers," Mayorkas said. "Authorizing these supplemental visas helps U.S. employers fill those positions ... It helps fuel our economy and reduce irregular migration while also providing a safe and lawful pathway to the United States for noncitizens who are prepared to work."

The re-election of Donald Trump to the presidency has been welcomed by many of America's truckers, and we hope that President Trump does not repeat the same policy mistakes of the Biden administration. Trump has signaled that he will prioritize American workers; a nice symbolic gesture to start out his second term would be to cancel the visas issued by Mayorkas and Biden. There are plenty of American truckers out of work who could fill those positions right now.

Contrary to the proponents of the entire world becoming a beige human resources slurry, to be slopped from one corner of the globe to another at the whims of our utterly decrepit and fraudulent ruling class, sovereign nation states are supposed to work for the people who live there, not international capital nor its prostitutes in government.


Speaking of President Elect Trump, I was invited onto the Compact Conversations Podcast along with friend and comrade in rhetoric Ashley Frawley to discuss the trolling of Trudeau with suggestions that Canada become the 51st state. It was meant to be a humorous and light hearted talk but I think it ended up being semi-serious; for my American and international listeners and readers, I think we provided a decent explainer of what Trump is really after with all this, and its not actually for Canada to become a 51st state, but to convince them that they ought to govern like adults. A twitter thread I made regarding this topic went viral, and despite it saying nothing newsworthy or necessarily insightful, it appears as if it was helpful to many, and has been read over 611k times.

Many thanks to Geoff Shullenberger for having Ashley and myself on, you can listen to that episode right here.


Back to Christmas!

I’d like to re-up an interview and bit of history I shared last year, that being of the NORAD Santa Tracking Operation, and one of its managers and operators, Colonel Chris Ellis of the United States Army.

I am told that Colonel Ellis will be on duty again tonight! He and his Team will be diligently tracking Santa’s progress, and taking calls from children all over the world.

You and your kids can call tonight - 1 877 HI-NORAD (1 877 446-6723) and speak directly with a NORAD staff member who will be able to tell you Santa's exact location. Operators are available until midnight.

In the works -

I’ve got a few things up my sleeve that will be shared here soon, but lets just say that January and February will see an increase in writing and podcasts, and I can’t wait to get this stuff out the door to you. Over and above a major announcement I will be making in the New Year, you can expect these very soon -

- A new and lengthy Substack piece examining what’s going on with truckers in Canada and why they’re crashing all over the place (hint- that recent piece by CBC Marketplace barely scratched the surface)

- A policy proposal essay for the incoming Trump administration regards trucking as the third and final installment of a series for my friends at American Compass

- A whole raft of podcasts, including interviews with Danielle Chaffin on her family history in trucking as well as TMS software, Lee Schmidt and his candidacy to become head of FMCSA, The Logistics Lounge Boys and Josh aka Carrier Whisperer on building up Amazon’s logistics network, Kevin Rutherford of the ‘Let’s Truck’ media empire, an interview I gave on trucking and family formation to

Grant Martsolf

at

The Savage Collective

Substack, and a year end roundup with Mike Lombard and Will Cook.

I have commitments from many others to record shows in the coming weeks, and look forward to the continued delivery of great interviews via the Voice Of GO(r)D podcast.


Thanks again for being here with me in 2024 - I am blessed with a great audience!

And from myself, my wife Jenna, and our daughters Vivian and Georgia, have a very Merry Christmas or Happy Hanukkah and a Wonderful 2025.



Gord

gordilocks@protonmail.com