Truck off: convoys, coups and protests

[47of74]

1 hour ago, Howl said:

Many people are saying that The Beltway always wins. Always. 

And I can't believe these idiots are still driving in circles.  There was a suggestion among truckers to flood 911 with calls about drivers being mean and flipping the bird, which of all the bad ideas they've come up with, that's the worst.  It's also possibly illegal to call 911 with non-emergency issues, right?  Don't know if they actually followed through on this.   There's also crappy weather forecast for tomorrow, maybe snow, so hopefully they'll decide to head south. 

No possibly about it. It is illegal in virtually every jurisdiction under something like misuse of 911 or obstructing emergency communications.  It’s one thing if someone calls by accident and admits it or there’s a legitimate err on the side of caution thing and I believe most dispatchers give the benefit of the doubt.  It’s another thing entirely if you call 911 to harass the dispatchers and tie up emergency lines  

 

[Alisamer]

17 hours ago, Cartmann99 said:

According to their schedule, racing season starts in sixteen days:

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I think you might have hit on the motivation for at least a few of them. Super early tailgating for the races. Wooo!

Also, it's hilarious that these snowflakes are surprised and offended by people flipping them off. Geez, the people you are trying to piss off got pissed off, how surprising!

And I still don't really get what they're after. Most mandates have been ended in most places already. And it's pretty rich that they want the government to leave them the hell alone, but the second the government leaves the roads the hell alone and lets them deteriorate guess who will be all up in arms?

[Xan]

This country is so embarrassing.  A few thousand miles away, people are running for their lives from an invading army.  Children are being killed.  People are in danger of freezing and starving.  And, over here, we have idiots wasting gas driving around a major highway in big rigs to show their love of freedom.  Someone ought to post "Shame on you!" banners at every overpass.

[GreyhoundFan]

5 hours ago, Howl said:

There's also crappy weather forecast for tomorrow, maybe snow, so hopefully they'll decide to head south. 

Frankly, I wish they'd drive east until they hit the Atlantic Ocean. And keep going east from there. Go jump in the ocean instead of go jump in a lake.

Edited March 11, 2022 by GreyhoundFan

[Dandruff]

5 hours ago, Howl said:

There's also crappy weather forecast for tomorrow, maybe snow, so hopefully they'll decide to head south.

A lot of rain, probably a bit of snow, wind, and temperatures near freezing which will then plummet.  I *almost* (but don't) hope they stick around for it.

[GreyhoundFan]

 

3 hours ago, 47of74 said:

No possibly about it. It is illegal in virtually every jurisdiction under something like misuse of 911 or obstructing emergency communications.  It’s one thing if someone calls by accident and admits it or there’s a legitimate err on the side of caution thing and I believe most dispatchers give the benefit of the doubt.  It’s another thing entirely if you call 911 to harass the dispatchers and tie up emergency lines  

 

I used to have to answer 9-1-1 as a police dispatcher. I always used to dread snow days because bratty kids would prank call 9-1-1. There was one day that the same teenager called 35 times in two hours. I sent a real hardass sergeant over to his house. He put the fear of god into that kid. I so wanted to call the kid back and tell him that's what he'll get for harassing me.

[Howl]

I think many (most?) truckers are camping out/sleeping in the cab of their rig.  Freezing weather and rain makes that less fun. 

[Audrey2]

4 hours ago, Alisamer said:

Also, it's hilarious that these snowflakes are surprised and offended by people flipping them off. Geez, the people you are trying to piss off got pissed off, how surprising!

And I would guess that many of these people are the same ones that you see driving around in their pickup trucks when they're not driving big rigs with signs like let's go Brandon and f Joe Biden.

[Cartmann99]

2 hours ago, Howl said:

I think many (most?) truckers are camping out/sleeping in the cab of their rig.  Freezing weather and rain makes that less fun. 

When I visited Hagerstown Speedway's Facebook page yesterday, there was a pro-convoy commenter (and Plexus dealer) pleased about how the local community is supporting the movement. She also said that some people were bringing wood to the Speedway to help keep the protestors warm. 

[Cartmann99]

 

[Howl]

Aren't races due to start up at the Raceway in a few weeks?

[Cartmann99]

2 hours ago, Howl said:

Aren't races due to start up at the Raceway in a few weeks?

Yup. Saturday, March 26th.

[Ozlsn]

Meanwhile in Canberra there was supposed to be 500,000 people arriving this weekend to protest something. They have two separate protests going, one to harrass shoppers and staff in a shopping centre, one to yell at security staff outside Parliament, and I don't think they've totalled over 500. Petrol hitting over $2/L probably scared some off, others are probably stuck with floods closing roads but the rest just didn't show up.

 

[Dandruff]

The weather forecast is getting worse.  Now expecting 2-4 inches of snow (following rain, so pre-treating roads isn't much of an option) with wind gusts ~50 mph.  The sensible will likely stay home.

Suspect the truckers will be sharing fantasies and farts in their cabs in Hagerstown, but I'll be interested to see what happens if they go for a drive instead.

[Howl]

8 hours ago, Dandruff said:

The weather forecast is getting worse.  Now expecting 2-4 inches of snow (following rain, so pre-treating roads isn't much of an option) with wind gusts ~50 mph. 

My only sense of weather in that very general part of the country is from the brief forecast on GMA that I catch occasionally (usually, "The northeast is getting hammered by wind and snow!" with large swaths of pink and blue on the weather map).

Has this been an unusually severe winter or are huge winter storms just part of life, even as far south as DC? 50 mph wind gusts are fairly extreme. 

[AlmostSavedAtTacoBell]

21 hours ago, Xan said:

This country is so embarrassing.  A few thousand miles away, people are running for their lives from an invading army.  Children are being killed.  People are in danger of freezing and starving.  And, over here, we have idiots wasting gas driving around a major highway in big rigs to show their love of freedom.  Someone ought to post "Shame on you!" banners at every overpass.

I am streaming ABC News coverage and a reporter just focused on supply efforts being coordinated to get food, medical supplies, and battery packs into shelters and into areas where people have remained in Ukraine. They interviewed a truck driver, noting that after he got his family to safety he volunteered to make repeated trips back and forth to deliver supplies. (He is older than 60 so he is not required to remain to fight.) The reporter said there have been many people who came with trucks to volunteer to drive supplies to places in need. I immediately thought of these crybaby whiners and their selfish, childish antics. The volunteer drivers are exhausted, dealing with freezing temperatures, and literally bringing life-saving supplies to people in war zones but yeah, tell me again about how you’re inconvenienced by mask mandates that no longer exist. 

[louisa05]

This article from the Daily Beast confirms the astroturf nature of this protest. There are also questions about what the money raised is being used for. https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-dollar2-million-question-what-did-the-dc-trucker-convoy-donations-buy

[Dandruff]

3 hours ago, Howl said:

Has this been an unusually severe winter or are huge winter storms just part of life, even as far south as DC? 50 mph wind gusts are fairly extreme.

The weather has been really erratic this winter, but I wouldn't say unusually severe.  There was the snowstorm in early January that closed part of I95 in Virginia for over a day, a bunch of unusually frigid days, and some unusually warm days; e.g., close to 75 degrees.  Several times there has been a difference of over 30 degrees from one day to the next.  It was over 60 degrees yesterday afternoon and is currently under 30.  Still snowing and windy.  Poor day for tantrumming in big rigs on the Beltway.  Temps expected to get to the mid-60s again then climb starting Tuesday.

[Howl]

 

[Cartmann99]

Back before the snowstorm:

Spoiler

 

 

[Seahorse Wrangler]

On 3/11/2022 at 8:03 AM, 47of74 said:

The fuck your feelings crowd has a sad. 

Someone should tell this fuck stick that the kind of people that live there are ones that are sick of the bullshit. 

Guess he's not used to driving in a big city. Flipping the bird at bad drivers happens frequently.

[Cartmann99]

 

[Dandruff]

3 hours ago, Cartmann99 said:

 

Ring around the bowl?

[Becky]

Yet more evidence that this is more than a late-night punchline:

https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/where-usa-trucker-convoy-now-liberals-should-know-ncna1291697

It looks like buffoonery from the outside, but there is huge support for this movement, and the people behind it are dangerous as hell.  

[apple1]

On 3/9/2022 at 5:55 PM, Xan said:

Are all of these people retired?  How can they afford to just park near DC and wait for a sunny day to drive around? 

Off topic (sort of). I am still working but my husband has been retired for a few years. He seemingly has more commitments now than when he was still actively employed. Never mind about the medical appointments that increase as we get older - grandpa provides some of the school transportation and some babysitting, both of which are otherwise either unavailable, problematic, or prohibitively expensive. If he wanted to (which he doesn't thank goodness) his schedule would never have enough open time to devote to several days (or several weeks as it seems some did).

And from what I hear anecdotally - these commitments reflect many grandparents' schedules.