11 October 2013

Convoy!

Today's the start of convoy weekend!  A die-hard passel of teabag-addled megatrucktards has made plans to descend on Washington DC today and obstruct traffic on the beltway until -- well, it's not too clear what they're trying to accomplish, actually, but the removal from office of President Obama and several Democratic and moderate Republican members of Congress has been mentioned by people claiming to speak for the truckers, and they also seem to be riled by fuel prices and various regulations.  There's the usual blather about fake birth certificates and imaginary Muslims.  The option of "Second Amendment" violence and a "bloody battle", if targeted officials don't step down in response to the protest, has also been raised.

The group calls itself "Ride for the Constitution", though my own copy of the Constitution must have been tampered with, since I can't find the section which states that the results of elections can be nullified if a few nuts cause a traffic jam.  The fact that Mark Kessler -- you know, the Pennsylvania police chief known for posting videos of himself ranting about "libtards" while apparently machine-gunning trees -- is associated with the event pretty much tells you what you need to know.

As I write this, it's almost 9:40 AM in Washington DC and it's unclear how many truckers are participating or how much impact they're having.  The event's Facebook page excitedly reports "UPDATE!! TRAFFIC BEHIND THE TRUCKERS BACKED UP FOR MILES!!!", and a photo shows what looks like about five trucks deployed across four lanes of traffic with a jam of backed-up cars behind them, so they may have succeeded in annoying a certain number of people, none of whom are high government officials.  There are three or four more trucks back among the cars, but whether they're participants or just more regular people being annoyed is anyone's guess.  I've checked a few general news sites, but haven't been able to find any reports on the protest, or any other evidence that it's been noticed by anyone other than the annoyed drivers immediately behind it, never mind any reports of Obama resigning.

Remember back before everything got so ugly, and the word "convoy" evoked this?



Sigh.  The cranks can't leave anything unsullied these days.....

12 Comments:

Blogger Ahab said...

One of the organizers was on Fox News last night, saying that the truck event was intended to promote small government.

How ANYONE could be waxing poetic about "small government" right now is beyond me. With the government shutdown -- and many services suspended -- we're living with "small government", and it's ugly.

11 October, 2013 09:46  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

That song always makes me cry a little. I guess it's somehow just sweet. Thank you.

Silly truckers.

11 October, 2013 10:23  
Blogger Infidel753 said...

Ahab: Comment threads on right-wing sites like RedState and Hot Air are full of that, in fact. They really believe the shutdown is proving much of the government to be unnecessary. They're still shut off from reality in their bubble.

Anon: I love that song too.

After searching in vain for any mention of the convoy protest on regular news sites, I was forced to resort to Fox -- which reports that few participants showed up and their impact was negligible. Another teabagtard fizzle.

11 October, 2013 12:15  
Blogger Tommykey said...

This is like the flip side of the so-called Million Muslim March on DC this past 9/11. The way some wingnuts were describing it, you'd think it was going to be like the Ottoman Turks laying siege to Constantinople. If they bothered to check, they would have seen it was just a bunch of cranks and 9/11Truthers numbering a few dozen people. But thank god for the bikers who rode in to DC to save the day! LOL!

11 October, 2013 16:27  
Blogger Shaw Kenawe said...

I understand, from the reports I've seen, that it was a grand failure.

Heh.

11 October, 2013 17:00  
Blogger Infidel753 said...

Tommy & Shaw: How could it possibly fail when it was organized by a genius like this?

11 October, 2013 18:09  
Blogger Robert the Skeptic said...

Truck drivers. Now there's a career path that requires a lot intellect... Not!

11 October, 2013 22:02  
Blogger Infidel753 said...

Robert: Well, most truckers may be smarter than the teabagtards think -- look how few of them showed up for this fiasco.

12 October, 2013 00:48  
Blogger mendip said...

As far as I can tell, the goobers had no impact. Traffic was slow, but that was because of heavy rain (DC drivers panic at the slightest meteorological disturbance) and several accidents. Of course, threatening to cause a traffic jam in DC is like threatening to make the Sun rise in the East. I like to think that many of the grits might not have made it as far as the Beltway to begin their little tantrum simply because they got caught in the usual jams leading here...

12 October, 2013 06:23  
Blogger Infidel753 said...

Mendip: Sounds like pretty much what I expected. Maybe they'll claim the rain was God supporting the protest. That would be funny if the protesters couldn't get to where they wanted to cause a traffic jam because they were stuck in a traffic jam, but it sounds all too plausible.

12 October, 2013 18:54  
Blogger Green Eagle said...

Reports are that the entire thing, drawing from the whole country, consisted of 30 semis and about 15 pickup trucks. As is always the case with these synthetic teabagger events, it demonstrates nothing but that the actual population of hard right wingers in this country is vanishingly small. Oh well, we have the Million Vets March tomorrow, and then the grand Larry Klayman event which is going to usher in the armed revolt against the government on November 19th to look forward to.

12 October, 2013 22:25  
Blogger Infidel753 said...

Green: Oh, yes, I have Nov. 19 on my mental calender to watch for the next fizzle. Didn't know about the 30-vet march though -- let's see if anyone notices.

13 October, 2013 01:45  

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