Whaaaaaat?

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Stupid is as stupid does

The effort to launch an American “freedom convoy”, inspired by the Canadian truckers who  [...]  shut down parts of Ottawa for several weeks initially to protest vaccine mandates, is taking shape in a somewhat haphazard fashion.

At least three national organizations, and a constellation of regional ones, say they will depart for Washington in early March.

One proposed convoy [organized by Kip Coltrin] aims to leave from Fresno in California on 2 March, taking the I-10 interstate straight to the capital, where it would arrive on 6 March.

  Guardian

I hope they're getting paid by someone with deep pockets. Those rigs cost a great deal to run, and unless they're making deliveries along the highway, they're losing big money. But perhaps the dumbest part is that they're protesting something that is rapidly being reversed without organized protests.

Numbskulls. They're just going to piss people off.

Another organization, which calls itself the “People’s Convoy”, also plans to depart in the first week of March from California. That effort is being backed by Freedom Fighter Nation, a far-right conspiracy group led by lawyer Leigh Dundas.

How deep are his pockets?

In a Facebook video, [Kip] Coltrin said he has been asked just how many participants he expects to join him on the trek to Washington. “My response was to begin laughing – respectfully, of course – chuckle and say, ‘I don’t know.’” But, he insisted: “It’s going to happen. There’s no maybes.”

Fool.  It may be him and his best buddy.  That'll cause some chuckling.  Respectfully, of course.

Around the world, convoys sympathetic to the Canadian truckers, who occupied the area in front of the parliament buildings and attracted thousands of additional protesters, have formed with varying degrees of success.

Apparently truckers around the globe are not the brightest folk.

Coltrin said in [one] video: “Patriot Guard Riders, our veterans, come on guys. Three Percenters: come on, guys. Oath Keepers: come on guys.”

[...]

The motivation of the US convoys appears as fragmented as its organization. Coltrin has said his group’s protest will be about everything from the cross-border vaccine mandates for truckers, to rising inflation, to their erroneous belief that electoral fraud cost Donald Trump his re-election.

Not a good plan. If you're going to have a protest, you need to focus it on one thing. "We're protesting everything" doesn't give people something to rally around. Think of the signs. No wonder it's not coming together well.

Also, the Oath Keepers are missing some leadership these days.  They won't be out of jail by the first of March.

On Friday, the White House press secretary, Jen Psaki, said the Department of Homeland Security is actively monitoring the possibility of a Washington-bound convoy.

“They’re taking all necessary steps to ensure that the convoy does not disrupt lawful trade and transportation or interfere with federal government and law enforcement operations,” Psaki said.

[...]

Dozens of social media pages have popped up to advertise and organize the American convoys, especially on rightwing social media platforms such as Gettr and Gab. One Facebook group intended to organize logistics and support boasts nearly 25,000 members.

[...]

Coltrin has repeatedly shared anti-vaccine misinformation on Facebook, including from the QAnon influencer Praying Medic.

Praying Medic?

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Making believe

As Donald Trump spoke to the press in his Rose Garden on Friday, a low hum could be heard from outside the White House grounds.

The president said the sound was truckers “showing support” and insisted: “They love their president.”

  Guardian

Well, Donnie, not so much right now.

In fact, the noise, which grew to include the honking of airhorns, was a protest.

According to a long-haul trucking industry website, the Trucker, the protest has been active for 15 days.

The drivers involved say they have not received targeted support in any coronavirus stimulus package and do not have adequate access to protective equipment and healthcare.

They have also voiced serious concerns about the rates they are getting through brokers who connect them with people needing to ship goods.

According to the Washington Post, “Just two weeks ago, President Trump personally extended his gratitude to truckers, welcoming representatives of the industry to the White House and calling truckers ‘the foot soldiers’ in the war against the novel coronavirus.”

But the paper quoted Santiago, “a 21-year veteran of the industry from New Jersey”, as saying: “The American truck driver needs help, and we need it now. This is our distress call to our commander in chief to address the problems we are facing. He has called us heroes – his heroes need his help now.”

Good luck with that.

On Wednesday, the White House chief of staff, Mark Meadows, met the protesters for nearly 15 minutes, the Trucker reported. This, the website said, gave some enough hope to return to work, though it added that many did so simply because they could not afford more unpaid leave.

[...]

Meadows “offered his personal email and promised that if [Michael Landis, founder and chief executive of the United States Transportation Alliance, who acted as a spokesman put together a list of priorities and [sent] it to him, Meadows [would] act”, the website reported. “The wary Landis, who has personally heard years of promises of action from the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) and others in Washington, responded, ‘We’d like to hear that from the president.’”

Meadows reportedly insisted he was “speaking on behalf of the president of the United States”.

Do you think Meadows told Trump the truth about the truckers? Not if he wanted to keep his head.

And...they want to hear it from the president? They still think they can believe the president?

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Yesterday's campaign presser aka guidelines to "reopen" the country

But, first:

That's supposed to be a point to cheer.  Overworked truckers.

Okay...the presser with Daniel Dale coverage:

Trump: "My administration is devoting every ounce of our energy, every fiber in our bodies, to give a tremendous -- really, create a border, create something very powerful, against this virus, this horrible virus."

Build a wall.

Trump begins a speech about truckers by patting a truck. He says: "They are beautiful, beautiful trucks. That's the real deal. You wouldn't switch jobs with anybody, would you, huh? You wouldn't. I know the truckers. They wouldn't switch with anybody. It's what they love, right?"

Trump, on script, begins by saying they have undertaken the country's greatest mobilization "since World War II." He says they have unleashed the "most potent weapon of all": Americans' courage. He tells people who've lost loved ones that their pain is our pain.

Trump's script says they have made "great progress." He adds, "You could really say incredible progress."

Trump says we're on track to beat the most optimistic projection, then immediately says, "There is no such thing as an optimistic projection on death."

Trump: "America wants to be open and Americans want to be open."

Trump warns of "a sharp rise" in drug abuse, alcohol abuse, heart disease, and other "physical and mental" problems from a prolonged shutdown.

Trump: Some states not in the kind of trouble others are; we have passed the peak in new cases; we're now starting "life again" in a "safe and structured and very responsible fashion."

No. No we haven't passed the peak in new cases.

Trump: If the virus returns in the fall, "as some scientists think it may, possibly," we will "put it out quickly."

This is, again, Trump suggesting he has made a decision to let states do something they don't need his permission to do. (He could have tried in various ways to make governors' lives difficult, but he never had the power to lift their restrictions.)

Fauci: "It will be staggered; not every state, not every region will do it at the same time"; that's "obvious"; but "sooner or later," we'll safely get back to some form of normality.

We're already in "some form" of normality. Have been since Trump took office. It's not a good form.

Fauci: "There may be some setbacks" with reopening; "we may have to pull back a little" at some point.

Trump: Some governors told me they're now "in very good shape," and I think there'll be some good news to report in the next "few days" about things opening up.

Those Republican governors who are gambling their citizens' lives against favors and nice tweets from Trump.

Trump: I spoke to sports commissioners, and many of them will start without fans; "Made for television. The good ole days." (?) He says there'll then be space between fans; then, "when the virus is gone, we'll be back to normal." (We haven't heard this stuff from the commishes)

Trump: I asked today, why would they wear masks in Wyoming or North Dakota? And it's because if someone comes in from another area where things haven't been so successful.

Trump on the anti-restrictions protesters: "They seem to be protesters that like me." (Indeed, there were MAGA hats and Trump flags in Michigan.)

Also guns and Confederate flags.

Trump: Some states "got too much credit for what they've done," while others "haven't been given credit" but did a phenomenal job.

Trump: There's not going to be a new normal where somebody with an 158-seat restaurant now has to have 30; they're going to be 158 seats, and that's going to happen relatively quickly, and we want a normal with 100K fans back at Alabama football games.

Trump says "it's ridiculous" to think the federal government is supposed to be doing testing in a parking lot somewhere. (He called up corporate CEOs at a press conference to tout a supposed initiative to test people in their parking lots; few sites are operational.)

Trump says some states can reopen because of "location," "luck," and also "talent."

Trump on state-by-state reopening: "I call it: a beautiful puzzle. You have 50 pieces. All very different...But when it's all done...a very beautiful picture."

Trump: "A lot" of states will open relatively soon; "we're beating the date" of May 1. "That's big stuff...big stuff, very important states."

Trump: "You have state without any problem...few cases, and those few cases have healed." (Every state is in the hundreds of confirmed cases, though obviously some have far fewer than others.)

Trump on how this virus has "decimated" people, even his own friends: "Some are DEAD, right now. They're dead."

Trump on the $349 billion small business loan program whose funds have run out: "So just for the viewers watching this, or hearing you ask that question, exhausted is a good thing, not a bad thing. It went quickly, it is so popular."

Trump: "People should have told us about this. They should've told the rest of the world, too." He continued downplaying the virus well after lots of warnings.

After the CDC director talks about the importance of "early diagnosis, isolation and contact tracing," Trump interjects that there are places with "wide open plains, wide open spaces," "where you're not going to have to do that."

"Cruel."  "Unfair."  "Distant land."