“We are going to eat, going to celebrate and enjoy the company of people who think we are heroes.”
That's all this #TruckersConvoy2022 has been about–self-congratulatory yahoos who didn't have a plan other than to satisfy their craving for attention.https://t.co/zbPKnBjlzu
— Edge ?? (@TheLesson55) March 5, 2022
Local paper (Washington Post) — “‘Freedom Convoy’ spinoff rallies in Md. with about 1,000 vehicles and unclear plans”:
… The truckers and their supporters are now the closest they have been to the nation’s capital, where they want to hold lawmakers “accountable” for the government’s pandemic responses. Their plans for coming days remained opaque on Saturday afternoon, but organizers said they intended to stay in Hagerstown — about an hour’s drive from the Beltway — for the rest of the day and hold a rally in the evening.
The convoy’s motives are muddy, too. People gathered in the western Maryland city described frustrations with workplace vaccine mandates and other measures meant to limit the spread of the coronavirus — even though those rules have now been lifted in many places. The speedway crowds chanted anti-President Biden slogans and displayed support for former president Donald Trump. Extremism analysts point to a broader set of right-wing causes that have motivated participants.
Trucks and cars filed into the speedway complex Saturday morning, passing under an American flag waving from a cable between two 30-foot booms attached to semi tow-trucks. Within, truckers and their supporters were waking up after the Friday night rally. Most in the crowd were White men, but there were also some young children and dogs.
Rows and rows of tanker trucks, flatbeds, box trailers, RVs and pickup trucks lined the parking lot, bearing license plates from Utah, Maine, Arkansas, Texas and other states. A chorus of honking horns blared from the area where the convoy vehicles were stacked in lines, awaiting their next move…
Organizers of the self-titled “People’s Convoy” previously said they would aim for the Beltway area on Saturday and wouldn’t go into D.C. itself. But Brase announced Friday morning to supporters in Lore City, Ohio, that the schedule had changed. They were staying in Hagerstown on Saturday before probably targeting another location “only two miles from the Beltway,” he said, without offering specifics.
Asked about the group’s plans, People’s Convoy organizer Mike Landis said: “We’re going to keep annoying D.C. … Just make them wonder a little bit.” He continued: “Look, we’re truck drivers; we’re very spontaneous.”…
Area traffic advisory:
Update here from the American trucker convoy Telegram channels:
The group's nervous, and some of them think they're going to be framed by Nancy Pelosi (?) if they head into D.C.
They may block the Beltway Sunday/Monday, but expect them to hang around Hagerstown, Md. for a bit. pic.twitter.com/iPUeVVOziA
— Ben Collins (@oneunderscore__) March 5, 2022
Is the People's Convoy really going to drive all the way from California to D.C. just to bail once they got to Hagerstown, Maryland?
Maybe.
It seems like they didn't think through the idea they might get arrested for blocking a highway or driving semis to The White House.
— Ben Collins (@oneunderscore__) March 5, 2022
Numerous truckers I have spoken with in Hagerstown are pretty worked up over a federal Covid-19 vaccine mandate, but there is one big problem: there has never been a U.S. federal Covid-19 vax mandate.
— Zachary Petrizzo (@ZTPetrizzo) March 5, 2022
One last note on The People's Convoy tonight in Hagerstown, after speaking with many truckers, it doesn't seem like most of them will be satisfied after spending $2.5K in gas, only to be left trying to own the libs by merely circling the Beltway.
— Zachary Petrizzo (@ZTPetrizzo) March 5, 2022
#TruckersConvoy2022
The dumbest hill to die for, what's waiting?
National Guard, DOT to suspend CDLs, State Troopers with tow trucks, Department of Homeland Security.
Someone needs to tell these morons the States aren't Canada. https://t.co/ypFlQsj6aT— Auntie_Tifa ?? (@TifaAuntie) March 5, 2022
Timing is everything:
Here's a feel good trucker convoy:
This is an actual “Freedom Convoy”. Truckers bringing aid from Romania to Ukraine. pic.twitter.com/pnxK2b39du
— RockyMountainHigh (@Jacquel25102704) March 5, 2022
Sh*t attracts flies…
“They look like a bunch of lazy bums,” Wohl tells me by phone, with Jack Burkman sitting nearby. “We want to lead them to Washington!” Truckers say Wohl is going to get someone hurt, while further stating the prankster is with antifa.
— Zachary Petrizzo (@ZTPetrizzo) March 5, 2022
A nonprofit says it collected over $1.5 million for a D.C.-region-bound truck convoy. Its director recently pleaded guilty to fraud.https://t.co/906Qe0cgJU
— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) March 5, 2022
Dear “freedom convoy”: Read the room. There’s a real struggle going on for freedom in Ukraine. Take your petty, moot Covid grievances and go home, think about your lives and priorities, and donate to help Ukraine.
— George Takei (@GeorgeTakei) March 5, 2022
Acts Of Kindness: Thinking of Ukraine
Miss Bianca
Jesus, a thousand trucks? That’s way more than I would have bargained for.
But yeah…these posers can go all the way to Hell. The more of them get arrested and get their CDLs yanked or their vehicles impounded, the better i’ll feel.
West of the Rockies
Basically, they want their participation trophy..
Shouldn’t heroes be, I don’t know, heroic?
lowtechcyclist
They thought they’d somehow own the libs by having this convoy.
The libs aren’t even paying attention to them at this point.
debbie
These guys are idiots, but nothing beats that Canadian trucker who demanded his first amendment.
mrmoshpotato
The gas station owners thank you, you morons.
West of the Cascades
@mrmoshpotato: Putin thanks them, too.
Ken
@debbie: Thinking the Speaker of the House controls the D.C. traffic cops comes close.
lollipopguild
Right-wing costume players.
George
A thousand trucks?
Or a thousand screaming trucks, with 11 long-haired friends of Jesus in a chartreuse microbus?
Almost Retired
If they can’t get to Washington, maybe they can at least overthrow the city government of Hagerstown as long as they’re there. Gotta have something to show for their effort.
ETA: There are three women and a dude named “Kristin” on the City Council. That should rile them up, shouldn’t it?
Sanjeevs
How is Wohl not in prison?
Baud
No wonder gas prices are high.
mrmoshpotato
@Sanjeevs:
I asked myself the same thing.
mrmoshpotato
@West of the Cascades: I guess.
MagdaInBlack
@George: Oh crap. You triggered the ear worm.
Mike in NC
Morans still pining for the Fat Orange Clown. Sad!
CaseyL
From Vice News:
Right. The “tyranny” of being asked to wear a mask and get vaccinated is just as bad as having one’s city bombed and one’s friends and family killed.
And this:
Christ on a carousel. These people – I really would like to drop them in the middle of the Ukrainian woods to draw some fire.
Jerzy Russian
@Baud:
We have medical marijuana here in California, so gas prices are especially high around these parts.
debbie
Miss Bianca
@CaseyL: “Whereas the people who decided to jump in their trucks and burn through $2500 worth of fuel to protest non-existent federal COVID vaccine mandates are exhibiting WISDOM! They’re the REAL heroes!”
Yeah, get all the way out of here with that shit. Man, the desperation reek off that tweet is kind of funny, if you have a taste for really tasteless humor
@debbie: Chickenshits!
Kay
@CaseyL:
The entire Right, every day.
Baud
@debbie:
Nancy SMASH smashes truckers without lifting a finger.
Cathie from Canada
On a side note, just wanted to share that when we were dealing with these idiots in Canada in February, some wit on Twitter coined the hash tag #FluTruxKlan.
As you were…
debbie
@Baud:
When she puts on her sunglasses, you know you’re done for!
Ken
@debbie: Didn’t they raise a lot of money by saying they would be going to D.C.? I wonder if there’s a lawsuit there. I think I’ve read about GoFundMe and similar sites clawing back money in such cases.
Shalimar
@Miss Bianca: A thousand vehicles. That includes all the pickups, etc. of the hangers-on. I haven’t seen any pictures to tell what percentage are commercial trucks, but I’m sure others have.
debbie
@CaseyL:
WTF are those truckers pumped with???
debbie
@Ken:
I saw something where the organizer was previously arrested for fraud. Surprise!
dexwood
@debbie: Weed, whites, and wine. /s
Old Man Shadow
Basically, “We’re loud, scared, stupid, and angry about we don’t know what, but something. Placate us!”
Would you just fucking go to therapy already. You stupid gits?
dmsilev
I know that’s exactly what I’m looking for in my logistics chain, spontaneity and unpredictability.
Ksmiami
Ain’t nobody got time for their selfish whiny shit. Convoy truckers-Go fuck yourselves
Ken
@dmsilev: Must be independent contractors. The ones that work for corporate fleets are tightly scheduled, and monitored by GPS to make sure they keep to the route.
David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch
It was only a matter of time before they started taking hostages
Kent
So basically the parking lot at an average Friday night HS football game.,
Sure Lurkalot
@Mike in NC: Actually, the TruckersforFreedom retweet above shows that at least one of them realizes TFG will help them as much as he has the insurrectionists. Truth hurts!
stinger
@Cathie from Canada:
Perfect!
Scout211
I for one and happy to blame the great and powerful Nancy SMASH for keeping 1,000 trucks driven by crazy people out of D.C.
Well done, Madam Speaker!
Jay
@Cathie from Canada:
also Ice Choad Truckers, ( one can replace the Tr with a single F)
Kent
@David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch: She got caught with CBD oil or something in her baggage. Casually crossing international borders with banned substances is a bad idea any place or any time. But especially dumb at this point in time.
Apparently numerous WNBA stars play in Russia during the off season. Something I never knew. I would maybe have guessed places like France or maybe China. But Russia? I didn’t know it was a woman’s basketball hot spot.
Citizen_X
@dmsilev: Manic Pixie Dream Revolutionaries
Another Scott
Oooh. Looking forward to them getting a few more guns off the streets.
Cheers,
Scott.
Chetan Murthy
@Kent: Hashish oil, per the Russians. Which ….. well, I’ll wait on something firmer before I believe them: https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2022/mar/05/brittney-griner-reportedly-detained-russia
Timill
@CaseyL: Maybe someone could dial up a flight of A-10s to give them a sense of being in Ukraine…
Another Scott
Uh oh. :-(
(sigh)
Cheers,
Scott.
Baud
@Another Scott:
?
John Revolta
This here is some stupid, stupid shit. I feel dumber just knowing about it. Yeesh.
Baud
@David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch:
Yachts for hostages deal?
Cameron
White men, young children, and dogs……sounds like something out of a Flashman novel.
https://youtu.be/mSur0mFviT0
delk
Ass clowns.
Another Scott
@Baud: He’s saying that ActBlue apparently got rid of their donation thermometers (at least for new donation campaigns). Seems like a bad thing, if true.
A little more over at his twitter thing.
Cheers,
Scott.
Ken
@Another Scott: @Baud: If Watergirl’s new post is typical, ActBlue is now using a horizontal slider-type gauge instead of the thermometer. It might be easier to uniformly render on the different browsers and platforms.
Baud
@Another Scott:
@Ken:
Thanks!
I’m partial to pie charts myself.
Jay
@Chetan Murthy:
here where pot is legal, one can vape CBD oils for stress, anxiety or pain relief,
or you can vape THC to get high.
Friend of mine works in a pot shop. Customer came in, ( not wearing a mask), was told that masks were mandatory, and there is a stack of free ones at the entrance.
Customer replied “I’m sorry, didn’t know, but I’m from Texas, we have freedom there”,
Friend replied, “oh, isn’t buying pot and smoking pot both a Federal and State felony there?”.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Grimly interesting thread, and something I’ve wondered about Putin’s inner-circle. This scholar breaks it down to oligarchs, people made rich by their relationship with Putin, and strongmen, people made powerful by association with Putin
David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch
@Kent:
What a coincidence, she’s been playing there for 8 years and they just happened to find something this week. Who coulda known.
Honus
@Cathie from Canada:FluTruxKlan. That’s the best. You win the internets tonight.
David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch
@Another Scott:
Anyone old enough to remember Howard Dean’s bats (photo)
Another Scott
@Kent:
(Ioffe points to an Israeli woman who went through a similar ordeal.)
:-(
Cheers,
Scott.
Baud
@David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch:
No one here is that old.
Kent
@David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch: Yeah, well, to be perfectly blunt, I’m afraid she is the wrong race and sexual orientation to get the media and a majority of Americans completely worked up. Now if they had kidnapped Tom Brady or some blonde strait American like Mikaela Shiffrin it might be different. That is the world we live in unfortunately.
scav
Whining Whining Whining. Keep those Truckers Whining,
Suzanne
@Kay:
It’s hard to be a white dude in America today. Women having jobs and being your boss, minorities making more money than you, accidentally finding a trans person hot…. utter chaos.
David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch
@Kent:
It’s gonna make a great movie, though – CIA officers Ben Afflect and Brian Cranston break Brittney outta Russia
NotMax
Front line against the War On Truckmas.
“What Would Jesus Drive?”
//
Kent
@Another Scott: Oh, I fully agree it is highly possible and perhaps likely that she was set up.
On the other hand, I actually lived in Waco when she was the superstar at Baylor where she had a reputation for cruising through campus breaking every rule and getting away with it because she was Kim Mulkey’s superstar and brought national championships. I actually had Kim Mulkey’s kid in my class so I heard all about it.
I expect we will never actually know the truth and I doubt CBD vape pens would ever draw much notice even in Russia absent current world events and the need by Russian officials to strike back somehow.
Rob
@Shalimar: I watched a Channel 4(?) video (nbcwashington.com) which had helicopter footage of the vehicles at the racetrack in Hagerstown. I counted/guestimated around 100 trucks. It should be interesting tomorrow if they do make it down here and drive around the Beltway.
Ken
@NotMax: Good idea. It shouldn’t take much to get the Freightliner and Peterbilt truckers at each other’s throats.
Kent
@David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch:@Another Scott:
Anyone old enough to remember Howard Dean’s bats (photo)
I’m old enough to remember Jimmy Carter’s peanuts https://ids.si.edu/ids/deliveryService?id=NMAH-ET2017-05558-000001&max=1000
Ken
OMG, they really are being followed by helicopters.
Gwangung
@Kent: Black, lesbian, non gender conforming. Yeah, it was planted on her.
NotMax
@Ken
“Get a Mack.”
:)
Rob
@Ken: Hee hee!
If they come down here, I bet that there would be at least two tv news helicopters monitoring their movements. And some reporters in cars. We shall see what the convoy decides to do tomorrow.
billcinsd
@Kent: Griner is a 6’9″ black woman. She is likely to stick out as an American. Becky Hammon, the first woman head coach in the NBA, played for the Russian Olympic women’s team because she was unlikely to get a US call-up. Last year, she was awarded an honorary doctorate from my University. Sadly her NBA duties kept her from coming home to get the award.
WaterGirl
@Another Scott: @Baud:
So ActBlue has eliminated the nice thermometers we always used and has replaced them with a horizontal bar, which we fear will not be as inspiring as the thermometers.
Plus, they don’t fit in the sidebar. Bastards!
Ken
@NotMax: I thought about adding that but didn’t want to be accused of stealing material from Cars. Especially with you-know-who holding the copyright.
WaterGirl
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Bill Browder seems to think it will work if we specifically sanction “50 – 100” oligarchs who support Putin.
I don’t know who this professor is, but I’ll put my money on Bill Browder.
phdesmond
@Kent:
summer of ’88 i spent three weeks traveling in Greece, and i brought four dozen Dukakis for President buttons with me — to give to Greeks who were helpful to us. best travel idea i ever had!
Shalimar
@David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch: Griner has apparently been detained for the last month, though news of it only came out today. Of course, Russia was building up their forces on the border and being belligerent even then, so it could still be related.
Ken
@WaterGirl: Adam’s post last night quoted Christo Grozev as saying new sanctions will be applied next week, which “will also affect Putin”. So maybe some targeting of individuals is planned, like seizing bank accounts.
(I keep imagining one of these guys getting an email confirming transfer of everything from their super-secret Cayman Islands account. Or maybe an email saying that to comply with sanctions the software in their pacemaker will be remotely disabled in three days.)
Nelle
Just parachuting in here after getting home from a two day drive from central Iowa to central Nebraska and back. (We went to see the sandhill crane migration – 600,000 cranes migrate through a narrow, 50 mile stretch of the Platte River for six to eight weeks in March/April.)
Going west on I-80, I was struck by how many semis are on the road. We were frequently in trains of about 10 semis jockeying between lanes.
But just on the west side of Lincoln, we started going under overpasses with people with American and Trump 2024 flags, at first a few, then 10, then 30, then 40 people screaming and waving flags. I figured a convoy must be coming through and they all got some sort of bat signal. It was incredibly windy but unusually warm. This went on for about 60 miles before we finally saw the truck convoy going the other way. A few pick-up trucks, a camper, and about 15 cabs without trailers. Flags.
Compared to the huge number of semis on the road, working truckers, it was pathetic. But those people on the overpasses were jazzed. They belonged to what they think is the cool team.
Kent
@Nelle: They want to live the glory days of 2020 when those damn convoys were everywhere until the election was stolen from them. Heh.
CROAKER
A 1,000 of anything ….including 16 wheelers .. okay not the one from PA…”18″ won’t make a hills beans difference in DC Metro… those poor people don’t know the shit storm they are in for….
they should stay in Hagerstown cause Frederick on south is Hells Highway
CaseyL
@Nelle:
Been a long time since anything exciting happened in, for, or to Nebraska.
Patricia Kayden
Ken
@WaterGirl: Interesting. The iframe content for the goal tracker (as downloaded from actblue and/or generated by their javascript) has CSS for both horizontal and vertical containers, and divs for both. Which suggests there’s an option to switch between them, since I can’t think of any other reason they’d provide both.
WaterGirl
@Ken: Yeah we tried that, but the vertical one looks HIDEOUS. A big rectangular unattractive blob. We would like to speak with the manager :-) about getting the thermometer back.
Ken
@CaseyL: There was that glacier about twenty thousand years ago.
Ken
@WaterGirl: Sorry, I should have figured you’d tried it.
WaterGirl
@Ken: Hey I am always open to ideas, no problem.
phdesmond
the Peterbilts have petered out.
WaterGirl
@Ken: This is what it looked like:
Another Scott
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: She makes a decent case, and I think that she’s right about the bargain between VVP and the oligarchs (they get to get rich, as long as they don’t cross him and stay out of politics), but she doesn’t seem to be considering the way existing sanctions are already putting a world of hurt on the oligarchs’ operations. E.g. Billionaire MotU’s aren’t used to not being able to travel.
Their (most-likely leased) private jets are not going anywhere anytime soon.
Relatedly, …
To be clear, I don’t know when or how this conflict ends, either. But I’m suspicious of claims that VVP and his cronies can just ride it out indefinitely.
Cheers,
Scott.
Ogliberal
I hate that “those” people are getting shit I also get because then I’m like “those people”. Just give that shit to me.
Ohio Mom
@Nelle: After reading your comment, I googled and found an Audubon Society video on the sandhill crane migration’s stop-over in Nebraska.
Never thought I’d want to go to Nebraska but now I do. Adding it to my list along with the Monarch butterflys’ winter habitat and that cave in Texas the bats fly out of every evening.
Ken
@Ohio Mom: While in Nebraska, be sure to check out the Klown Doll Museum, conveniently located in Plainview just 75 miles west of Sioux City Iowa. Get your picture taken with their 8-foot-tall mascot, “Stumpy the Klown”, then tour rooms packed with shelf after shelf of clown dolls.
(I think I’ve mentioned this place before, because I’m an energy vampire, and how often do you get so many fear-triggers in one neat package? Other than the Texas bat cave.)
trollhattan
Saw my first $6/gal gas today and at the nearest Chevron, on the corner of Gouge Street and Grift Way, Diesel is $5.70. Good luck with all that.
Liminal Owl
@George: I’m glad someone else was thinking along those lines.
CONVOY…
VOR
I encountered one of these convoys in Wisconsin on I-94 yesterday headed East. It had a small number of semi cabs, not trailers, but mostly pickups and SUVs. Almost all vehicles had US flags attached although there were plenty of “Let’s Go Brandon” and “Don’t Tread on Me” flags too. The overpasses often had small groups, also waving US flags or “Blue Lives Matter” flags. I saw few Trump flags although hard to be sure because the Brandon flags look similar. I did not see any confederate flags, although I was busy driving rather than watching the weaponized stupidity.
The vehicles were mostly in the right lane and going well below the speed limit. This clogged up the interstate so I had to slow below 40 MPH a few times. It was dangerous driving and thank goodness the weather was good.
lowtechcyclist
@CaseyL:
A thousand trucks? A thousand clowns.
Speaking of which, I ought to re-watch that sometime and see how it’s held up.