Posts Made By: Rod Kaufman

Originally Posted by Mel Maki

There is a lot of room to be critical of our transportation dept. if they don't spend enough on the nuts and bolts of our huge needs in their area. How much construction will they get done?

Various Republicans, who voted against the infrastructure bill claiming it was "socialist and Marxist", are now touting the funding and claiming credit for it as the repairs and the jobs that go with it advance in their districts... 

Originally Posted by David Cotterell

Hi, Jim.  90% of Canadians are vaccinated.  It is unlikely that very many of this group are supporters of the blockades.  A vast majority of Canadians oppose them.  Certainly 2/3 or more.

Yet you write, "Based upon what I have read, it is the non-college educated working class and the youth who support the truckers and the educated, very liberal, wealthier/older establishment groups who support Trudeau."

That's a pretty broad brush.  And an incorrect one. 

Only about 22% of Canadian adults are College educated.   But 66% at least of Canadians oppose the blockades.  So that means a majority of those opposed are less than college educated...  Far fewer Canadians are "Wealthy" -  The top 5% of income in Canada in 2021 = $128,634 - 95% of Canadians earn less than that but 2/3 at least of this group oppose the blockades...

The opposition to these "Truckers" is very broadly based across the country and cannot be identified with any one 'group' or demographic. A majority of those opposed are not college educated and earn less than $125000 a year. 

Then we have the usual QAnon far right people who organized it.  And what are their goals?  

Convoy Supporters



Dave

Another convoy supporter who reportedly stated this a day before the January 6th insurrection:
According to The Washington Post, Dundas “posted video of herself telling a crowd the day before the Capitol chaos that ‘we would be well within our rights’ to take traitorous Americans ‘out back and shoot ‘em or hang ‘em.’”
"Best known as an anti-vaccine lawyer and activist, Leigh Dundas is now in the media spotlight for her role in helping to organize disruptive trucker convoys at the U.S.-Canada border – but that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Dundas is also closely tied to a number of far-right extremist groups and conspiratorial movements, including QAnon."
https://www.mediamatters.org/qanon-conspiracy-theory/qanon-affiliated-january-6-insurrectionist-now-organizing-us-anti-vax

Originally Posted by Rod Kaufman

"Protesters continue to be aggressive and assaultive on officers."
"Some of those arrests included protesters who allegedly had smoke grenades and fireworks and were wearing body armor, police said."
https://www.cnn.com/2022/02/20/americas/canada-trucker-protest-covid-sunday/index.html
What else would you expect from law & order wingnuts?

I'll add to the above the refuted lies of Faux News:
"Sara A. Carter, a Fox contributor with about 1.3 million Twitter followers, tweeted a dramatic allegation on Friday after a chaotic incident involving police officers on horseback riding near a crowd of protesters on an Ottawa street"
"The claim about a woman being trampled to death went viral. Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, a Republican of Texas, quote-tweeted Carter's tweet and added himself, "This...is...horrific." Right-wing commentator duo Diamond and Silk said in their own quote tweet: "#Trudeau should be arrested for murder!"

"Facts First: Carter's report was false. Nobody died in the incident involving the police officers on horseback."

"Geraldo Rivera criticized the protest in Ottawa -- which had involved protesters relentlessly honking truck horns and car horns -- for "taking away the right of the homeowner to sleep in peace," among other impacts on local residents. But co-host Greg Gutfeld scoffed, skeptically asking Rivera where he was "seeing this."
"They're not parked in front of people's houses," Gutfeld claimed. "They're not parked in front of people's houses honking in the middle of the night." Gutfeld continued, "They're actually being welcomed." He then questioned Rivera's credibility, saying, "You have one person you're talking to in Canada."
Facts First: Gutfeld was thoroughly inaccurate. Thousands of people live in the parts of Ottawa where the protest was concentrated, and some of the protesters did park vehicles right beside residential buildings; as Rivera said, the constant honking, which took place in the middle of the night as well as during daylight hours, disrupted sleep and daily life for days."
"The Five" co-host Jeanine Pirro said, "Parliament has to vote on this emergencies power act, and they punted." (Before Pirro said "they punted," another host had said the same thing off-screen.) Pirro continued, "They don't want to vote on it. Because they are with the truckers."

Facts First: It's not true that the Canadian Parliament is "with the truckers." Three of the four biggest parties, together representing a large majority of the House of Commons -- Trudeau's Liberal Party, the left-wing New Democratic Party and the Quebec sovereignist Bloc Quebecois -- have all condemned the protesters' tactics. (The Liberals and the New Democrats, themselves representing a majority, last week voted down a motion for the government to quickly put forward a plan to end all federal Covid-19 mandates and restrictions.
"https://www.cnn.com/2022/02/21/politics/fact-check-fox-canada-protests-carter-gutfeld-pirro/index.html

"Protesters continue to be aggressive and assaultive on officers."
"Some of those arrests included protesters who allegedly had smoke grenades and fireworks and were wearing body armor, police said."
https://www.cnn.com/2022/02/20/americas/canada-trucker-protest-covid-sunday/index.html
What else would you expect from law & order wingnuts?

Originally Posted by James Brown

Hi Rod:  I added bold above.  I acknowledge that the truckers and those who support them are a minority.  The minority is precisely who classical liberals are supposed to protect.  Trudeau is acting like an authoritarian, not a liberal.  This is a big philosophical deal, and the fact that a vast majority supports him (to the point of military intervention!!!) is part of what makes this a big deal.

Trudeau is acting to enforce Canadian law by removing an unlawful siege  of bridges and roadways that is clearly intended to prevent transport of commerce. And why do we have the protests in the first place? Because of right wing misinformation about vaccines and masks coupled with the guise of "freedoms"...

Originally Posted by James Brown

Hi Rod:

In my opinion, one interesting political issue is who is supporting the truckers and who is supporting the government.  Based upon what I have read, it is the non-college educated working class and the youth who support the truckers and the educated, very liberal, wealthier/older establishment groups who support Trudeau.  This is additional evidence that the left, world wide, is abandoning the working class and finding it's new base with the monied classes.  Correspondingly, the working class gravitates to the right.  Not sure which is cause and which is effect.  In the states, this shift is especially true of the white working class.

This flip-flop of constituencies is well under way in the US.  Consider who is advocating "Defund the Police" vs. "Blue Lives Matter?"  Resentment against snobby liberal elites and Trump are a result of this shift in the US.  HRC's "basket of deplorables" is evidence of the left's abandonment of the working classes.  Now Trudeau is invoking an emergency powers act to quash a worker's protest to the applause of well-to-do progressives?  In the US, if working class voters of color move to the R party in significant numbers the flip-flop will be complete with some very interesting political consequences.

Jim

Hi Jim,
As noted in the link, 2/3 of those polled strongly disagree with the trucker protestors and their stand on the mandates. A similar majority favor military action to remove the truckers and their fellow protesters. And the opposition to the truckers is clearly demonstrated in multiple polls. So I disagree with your impressions of Canadian politics.
That said, I generally agree with your take on the American side of the border but I think a lot of it is due to the constant flood of misinformation from right wing media sources on a daily basis. It's that propaganda that is responsible for what we're experiencing here and not some sort of class struggle. That and the success of the GOP to push through voter suppression laws in 19 states based upon the big lie of election fraud pushed by Trump and his ilk. In Texas, for example, 40% of absentee ballots are being rejected because of the pitfalls in place by the GOP. Voters, who already had to prove themselves with voter ID in order to register to vote in the first place, have to go through it all over again if they happen to vote by absentee ballot and many of those fail to see an added absentee voter ID number under a flap in the ballot that they have to add to the ballot when they send it in. These sort of "gotcha" rules and steps are being placed though-out GOP controlled states with the end result being voter access IS being thwarted. The bottom line: our democracy is being thwarted and is in peril and it's not classed oriented; it's orchestrated by the GOP...   

"Fact check: Strong majority of Canadians oppose convoy protests, poll after poll finds"
"Batya Ungar-Sargon, deputy opinion editor of Newsweek, tweeted on Monday: "Don't let the fact that the mainstream media is hiding this fool you: Canadians support the Freedom Convoy."
"In fact, poll after poll -- including the very poll Ungar-Sargon was referencing -- has shown that most Canadians oppose the protests and support both vaccination mandates and various restrictions intended to limit the spread of the virus. The polling figures suggest it is Fox's cheerleading for the protests that is out of touch with the views of a significant majority of the Canadian public."
https://www.cnn.com/2022/02/15/politics/fact-check-canadian-protests-polls-trudeau-support-oppose-truckers-mandates/index.html

Originally Posted by Greg Shaffer

Seems the powers that be started calling around to find towing companies to start moving trucks out.....per an interview I saw with some locals they were told "sorry, all our drivers are out with covid"

"Authorities have seized 13 long guns, handguns, multiple sets of body armor, a machete and a large quantity of ammunition and high-capacity magazines connected to a small, organized group within a larger protest at the Canadian-US border crossing in Coutts, Alberta, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police said Monday."
"The group was said to have a willingness to use force against the police if any attempts were made to disrupt the blockade," the statement said. "This resulted in an immediate and complex investigation to determine the extent of the threat and criminal organization."
https://www.cnn.com/2022/02/14/americas/canada-truckers-protest-monday/index.html
Those gosh-darn handful of nut jobs at it again...

"Conservative leader O'Toole ousted in Canada"
"The vote to oust O’Toole also came as conservative lawmakers were bruised by their party's third consecutive loss to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's Liberals."
https://thehill.com/policy/international/592604-conservative-leader-otoole-ousted-in-canada

Originally Posted by william chiu

Wonderful block party in ottawa.  
Great to see socialist leaders fully supporting the workers.
Hope to see amerikans participate in the celebrations soon.

Turns out the Americans have been there all along:
"Canadian official says 'significant element' from US involved in anti-vaccine mandate protests
© Arthur Mola/Invision/AP"
"Protests against Canada's COVID-19 measures have drawn a "significant element" from the U.S., Ottawa police said Wednesday."
“They have converged in our city, and there are plans for more to come,” Ottawa Police Chief Peter Sloly said, according to The Washington Post."
"The police chief said participants in the protests, including locals, were "putting our city and our residents, our partners and our officers at great risk."
https://thehill.com/policy/transportation/592597-canadian-official-says-significant-element-from-us-involved-in-protests