Semis Without a Cause: Truckers May Choke DC

Inspired by a trucker protest that choked Ottawa for three weeks and caused millions in economic damage, US haulers are hellbent on blocking arteries in and around Washington, DC, targeting March 1st, when President Biden delivers the State of the Union address. It’s a “People’s Convoy” or “Freedom Convoy,” depending who you ask.

What the truckers are protesting: What’ve you got? It’s a protest against COVID rules, high fuel costs, lack of truck parking areas, excessive regulation, insuffucient freedom. Oh yeah, and the 2020 presidential election. So there you have it, another loosely-linked libertarian clusterfuck of chaos.

Self-proclaimed convoy leaders claim the trucks won’t clog local DC streets, but will strangle the surrounding Beltway displaying protest signs and banners. An anti-Obama trucker protest tried to strangle the Beltway back in 2013 but couldn’t, since it would take about 10,000 eighteen-wheelers to do that, and they got 30.

But this isn’t 2013, so it’s likely a few extemist truckers will park in choke points, if not on DC streets then at key Beltway exits, bridges, and overpasses. That was the Canadian truckers’ tactic in Windsor-Detroit, and in truck protests in Brazil (2018) and Chile (2020). Police in the DC-MD-VA area are on alert, as are Capitol Hill Police and the National Guard.

More:

“Here’s What We Know So Far About Possible Trucker Convoy Protests Coming To D.C. Soon,” Margaret Barthel, DCist

“A Truck Caravan With Far-Right Links Heads to Washington, D.C.,” Shawn Hubler and Alan Feuer, New York Times

“Many Of The Groups Behind Jan. 6 Are Now Organizing U.S. Trucker Convoys,” Jesselyn Cook, HuffPost

“‘Be as Disruptive as They Can’: What to Know About the Trucker Convoys’ Plans for DC,” Andrew Beaujon, Washingtonian

“Trucker Protest Convoy’s Grievances Include Streets Named for Biden,” Margaret Hartmann, New York Magazine

Updates:

“Republicans who opposed racial justice protests hope truckers ‘clog up’ US cities,” Sergio Olmos, The Guardian

“‘Don Quixote-like quest’: Ukraine attack and easing Covid mandates leave US trucker protest on the fringe,” Sergio Olmos, The Guardian

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GOP State Politicos Push Quack COVID Cures

Republican state lawmakers in Colorado, Florida, Idaho, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, Mississippi, Indiana, Virginia, and West Virginia have proposed legislation that allows quack doctors to prescribe ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine to prevent and treat Covid-19 which, despite pronouncements on Fox News and right-wing podcasts, they do not do. North Dakota and Tennessee have already passed such laws, even though:

” … those treatments have not proven effective at preventing or treating Covid and infectious disease experts see the bills as examples of right-wing lawmakers politicizing medicine – a trend that is increasing as the pandemic wears on in America in to its third year amid an increasingly fraught political atmosphere.

And so it goes with the latest suspect Covid-19 treatment that has become about more than just a drug, but rather about whether to trust established public health organizations or doctors who stray from their guidelines, and podcast and cable news hosts.”

— “Concern as Republicans push to make dubious Covid cure prescriptions easier,” Eric Berger, The Guardian

More:

“Republicans Are Changing State Medical Board Rules So It’s Easier For Doctors To Prescribe Hydroxychloroquine And Ivermectin,” Kadia Goba, BuzzFeed News

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Lethal Libertarianism in the Ozarks

Alexander Stockton visited Mountain Home, Arkansas, in the Ozarks, and found residents “Dying in the Name of Vaccine Freedom,” and taking their neighbors with them. A New York Times OpEd video.

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How Masks Got Political

Health authorities agree: Wearing a mask can help stop the spread of the coronavirus. But even after thousands have died, many people still don’t believe it.

A Vox video by By Madeline Marshall.

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Trump Economic Recovery Panel: Libertarian Clown Posse

President Trump announced the members of his Coronavirus economic recovery panel yesterday. He calls it the Great American Economic Revival and, true to its name, it’s got an amen corner of true believers. Unfortunately for a panel on government economic interventions, they’re fundamentalist Libertarians, believers in a savage free market “red in tooth and claw,” and opposed to any government intervention in American life. The market Malthusian “though leaders” on this committee are from the Cato Institute, Heritage Foundation, American Enterprise Institute, and Conservative Partnership Institute. Even the name “Great American Economic Revival” was provided by a Right-Wing media group.

Civil Rights Cases To Be Scaled Back Under Betsy DeVos

“The Department of Education is scaling back investigations into civil rights violations at the nation’s public schools and universities, easing off mandates imposed by the Obama administration that the new leadership says have bogged down the agency.

According to an internal memo issued by Candice E. Jackson, the acting head of the department’s office for civil rights, requirements that investigators broaden their inquiries to identify systemic issues and whole classes of victims will be scaled back. Also, regional offices will no longer be required to alert department officials in Washington of all highly sensitive complaints on issues such as the disproportionate disciplining of minority students and the mishandling of sexual assaults on college campuses.

The new directives are the first steps taken under Education Secretary Betsy DeVos to reshape her agency’s approach to civil rights enforcement, which was bolstered while President Barack Obama was in office. The efforts during Mr. Obama’s administration resulted in far-reaching investigations and resolutions that required schools and colleges to overhaul policies addressing a number of civil rights concerns.”

— “Education Dept. Says It Will Scale Back Civil Rights Investigations,” Eric L. Green, New York Times

Candice E. Jackson, appointed by Secretary DeVos to run Education’s Civil Rights office, first gained notoriety as a Stanford student when she complained that she had suffered discrimination because she is white. Who better to reverse Civil Rights progress than someone who claimed “reverse discrimination?”

Updates:

“Government Watchdog Will Investigate Trump Administration on Civil Rights,” Elena Gooray, Pacific Standard

“Betsy DeVos Faces Pushback After Scaling Back Investigations of Civil Rights complaints,” Annie Waldman, Pacific Standard

Related:

“Trump official apologizes for saying most campus sexual assault accusations come after drunken sex, breakups,” Katie Mettler, Washington Post

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Betsy DeVos Taps ‘Reverse Discrimination’ Whiner for Civil Rights Post

Civil Rights Office Renamed

Secretary of Education Betsy Devos has named attorney Candice Jackson as acting head of her agency’s Office for Civil Rights. Ms. Jackson seems to share Ms. Devo’s belief that public education programs should be eliminated, has condemned feminism and, while a student at Stanford University, complained that she suffered discrimination because she is white.

Candice Jackson had an underprivileged childhood. Her father labors as a humble family medical practitioner and had to take a second job as a singer of Christian Country Music. She survived Stanford and Pepperdine Law School, had a fellowship at the paleolibertarian Ludwig von Mises Institute (where she wrote a book report), litigated for right-wing legal pest Judicial Watch, wrote for Reason and The Federalist, and penned a book slamming the Clintons, published by conspiracy peddler WND.

Republican: Restaurant Worker Hand Washing Should Be Optional

Republican Senator Thom Tillis of North Carolina is a lavatory libertarian. He told the Bipartisan Policy Center that governments shouldn’t force restaurant employees to wash their hands:

“I don’t have any problem with Starbucks if they choose to opt out of this policy as long as they post a sign that says, ‘We don’t require our employees to wash their hands after leaving the restroom.'”

Here’s a sane word on this from Mr. Tillis’ neighborhood:

“If a government shouldn’t create and enforce regulations to stop the spread of disease, for Typhoid Mary’s sake, exactly what should it do, and how many people have to suffer the avoidable consequences in the name of freedom?”

“Even if Tillis was joking, or half-joking, there’s no question that the Republican Party sees government not as the collective expression of a populace but an evil to be eradicated one set of rules at a time, even if it means people getting hurt or sick or financially ruined, because liberty. That, at base, isn’t funny, isn’t funny at all.”

— “Thom Tillis Steps In It,” Greg Lacour, Charlotte Magazine

The FDA has a cogent explanation for compulsory hand washing: It “reduces the spread of fecal-oral pathogens from the hands of a food employee to foods.”

The Party’s Over

We’re starting to get the spin — and the finger-pointing — on Tea Party Republican Ken Cuccinelli’s gubernatorial election loss.  Cooch coulda won if it wasn’t for those hostile Hispanics, Asian Americans  and Black folks. And voters with gay friends. And people who understand science. Oh, and all those unmarried voters and womenfolk.

Sounds like the majority 21st century American population, doesn’t it? The very people the GOP has spurned in its courtship of Tea Party extremists.

But wait. The Cooch was robbed. He really must have been beaten by those Northern Virginia suburbanites who work for federal contractors, angry about the government shutdown. Surely the Tea Party can’t be blamed for … never mind.

No, no, it was the GOP, the party stabbed Cooch in the back … the Libertarian candidate …the Big Money … the Military Industrial Complex …

More:

“How the tea party lost on Tuesday night,” Sean Sullivan and Aaron Blake, Washington Post blog

“Virginia Isn’t the Place Ken Cuccinelli Thinks It Is,” Jill Lawrence, National Journal

“Why Cuccinelli Lost: Hard-Right Conservatism Became A Liability In Virginia,” Daniel Strauss, Talking Points Memo

“Analysis: Tea party reels with Virginia loss, Christie romp,” David Lightman, Dallas Morning News

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Ron Paul Rumble at Republican Convention

Delegates pledged to Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul rode their blimp through Tampa’s storm-scoured skies only to be dissed by GOP Convention rule-making manipulations. Congressman Paul was barred from speaking at the convention just because he doesn’t back the party’s billionaire-anointed candidate, financier Mitt Romney. Oh, also because he sounds like a crazy old coot, even compared to delusional loons like Rick Santorum and Paul Ryan.