Now the right-wing has riled up a handful of truckers. According to MSNBC’s Ed Schultz, roughly 3,000 (out of around 3 ½ million) drivers are planning to steer their rigs to DC and raise a little hell. Once there, the plans call for blocking thoroughfares, mainly the Capital Beltway (only emergency vehicles and those with a sticker of agreement will get through), “arresting” a few Congressmen and women and somehow summoning up a pretend grand jury. There’s even the danger of an uncontrollable hot head shooting a few people. Organizers can’t seem to agree on what actual strategies are going to be implemented as one spokesman denies roads will be blocked, but who knows. The dates of whatever transpires have been set for Friday morning, October 11 through Sunday, the 13th. By the way, the 3,000 figure is slightly downsized from the protesters original mid-September goal of 1 million truckers.
The alleged organizer is an obscure one-time model (Puleeze) and country music singer (in the shower?) and apparent truck driver, Zeeda Andrews, real handle, Zeeda Hutton from alligator country. I say alleged because I doubt Zeeda whatshername had anything whatsoever to do with the organization, planning or placement of whatever they’re calling this. Spokesperson and promoter maybe, but organizer? Another identified organizer is an online radio host, Pete Santilli, a complete mad man who has called for the execution of the president and Hillary Clinton. Such a distinguished up-front duo.
The assigned name and main Internet site is “Ride for the Constitution” though the more feisty banner “Truckers to shut down America” also appears to apply. Either way, a few drunks will make things interesting for law enforcement since a bunch of non-truckers in cars and some “Sons of Anarchy” wannabes are tagging along for the festivities. The real question is not Zeeda’s inconsequential role, but who is really pushing this thing from some marbled hiding place in a suite of offices in DC or NYC or some billionaire hideout nestled in a canyon of skyscrapers.
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In addition to the potential arrests and faux-trials of certain Congresspersons (care to guess the party?) the bobtail (no trailers; it’ll be fun watching the ‘tails’ bounce up and down) mob is going to screech about regulations while fully 99% of this bunch drives “illegal” anyway.
Maybe they want to go 100 mph. That’s the answer to my prayers, a wing-nut trailing 80,000 pounds behind him heading toward my rear bumper, in a downhill trajectory at the century mark. Sans trailer would be even harder to stop. Corruption is supposedly a real concern as well. If there were an industry with more kickbacks than the trucking industry, I’d love to know what it is. This rough-hewn bunch is also all verklempt about raising the debt limit as well. If a dozen of the 3,000 have the foggiest notion of any facts, background or economics relative to the debt ceiling, not to mention the local and global implications of doing nothing, I’ll eat your front axle.
Low wages are also something that rattles the truckers. The Obama administration and Democrats in Congress have done everything in their power to try to improve the financial lot of Americans stuck in minimum wage territory. The free market sets the wages in trucking. Drivers are paid by the mile and make anywhere from $300-$400 a week up to $1,200 on average. Most are in the lower range. You want more money? Vote for Democrats.
High fuel prices have also got the truckers hackles up. Couldn’t agree more. Who doesn’t get pissed about the costs at the pump whether for cars or trucks? You might want to talk to your local right-wing Congressional delegation that keeps voting subsidies for multi-billion dollar corporations even as these global oil giants keep piling up record profits.
But make no mistake, the real political barrage is aimed directly at our black president and it’s racist to the extreme. Obama is characterized as a “domestic enemy” who should be impeached for treason. The same old tired terminology of “socialism and tyranny” rises to the top of the “Ride for the Constitution” rhetoric, not to mention the ever-present appeal to patriotism. Repetition of those relentlessly repeated words as applied to the president is why this is a highly organized continuum of the anti-Obama propaganda campaign that comes directly from the very top of the Republican hierarchy.
I listened to an Internet online radio broadcast of Ms. Andrews/Hutton as long as my aging sensitivities would allow. The ongoing show about the trucker action sounds like a doofus right-wing version of “Wayne’s World.” and is aired on an intellectually preposterous online network (big Santilli supporters) with an oddball name and zero meaningful content.
No word yet on what the Department of Transportation and DC law enforcement plan to do with their soon-to-arrive “tourists.”
Raised rural & small town, then lived in N.Y., Chicago & LA. Widely traveled. Returned from world wandering to pursue media life of anchorman/reporter and major, medium and small market talk radio. Highly active in politics. Once worked as orderly & security in Mens Lock Ward for the Criminally Insane at a state institution. Much more rational population than current Teapublicans. Great concern for country run by and for the extreme wealthy. The inhumane current running through this country has no precedent in modern history.
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