Found on MeWe, source unknown, but it makes good sense to me.
The question is, can the Canadian version of the “deep state” come up with any alternative to crush the truckers? I’m willing to bet that the US “deep state” is wargaming exactly that issue right now, because the chances of a US trucker blockade are getting better and better as our people see the success of the Canadian effort.
If US truckers get organized, they can shut down our economy within a couple of weeks – and all the edicts ever issued by the White House can’t change that reality. The only answer would be a fascist/communist-style crackdown, including riding roughshod over the truckers’ civil and constitutional rights. If that happens, it means anybody’s rights can be trampled in the same way – and that may mean civil war.
I wish we didn’t live in such “interesting” times . . .
Peter
EDITED TO ADD: This, too, from Padraig Martin on Gab yesterday.
The Canadian Convoy Protest is Impacting Canadian and American Supply Chains
As the owner of a couple of trucking companies, I can honestly report that cross border shipments are grinding to a halt. Rail continues to move imported containers into the rail heads to bypass the truckers, but they are now hitting bottlenecks of critical mass. Rail terminals are hitting peak capacity. For Canadians already experiencing supply shortages, this will make matters far worse, as trucking brokers struggle to find cross-border truckers. For the Americans, however, they too will begin feeling additional strains. The reason? Many of the West Coast port issues beginning in mid-2021 forced shipping companies to redirect vessels to West Coast Canadian ports and then either rail them to terminals in the Pac NW, Midwest, or drive them across border points. Now that the rail heads are getting filled up and the truckers are not crossing like they did before, bottlenecks of inbound supplies are causing rail terminals to stop receiving cargo. But it gets worse…
Importers who rely on credit terms are being hit with charges by their suppliers well before they receive their freight – which has either been stuck offshore, stuck at the American-Canadian border, or stuck in rail and/or port terminals. For the Walmarts of the world, they can withstand pre-delivery purchase payments. For small businesses, however, they cannot. They rely on receiving goods and selling those goods often before the bill is due (Cash Flow Maximization). These small businesses are now going bankrupt without any relief. What is making matters worse is that the US Dollar is growing weaker, fast. Bills that were valued at one level in certain foreign currencies a year ago cost more today – thanks to the Biden Administration. The totality of this disaster is that small businesses are going out of business and abandoning the cargo. Savannah, for example, reported more than 88,000 abandoned containers at that highly efficient port in November alone.
In sum, Trudeau’s intransigence and Biden’s incompetence are pouring fuel on the fire of a major supply chain disaster. I thoroughly believe that the Canadian Government will attempt to treat the leaders of the Canadian Trucker Convoy like the American Government chose to treat the J6 Protestors. The Rule of Law means nothing to people who are never held accountable. Still, that will lead to even worse supply chain disruptions, bare shelves, and hyper-inflated prices on the few goods that actually make it to market.
I look forward to all of those lefty hipsters who are about to learn a key lesson: grocery stores are not filled by means of magic. They are filled by a system that has functioned without any major hiccups for at least a century. They are soon going to have a hard time getting their soy lattes and beard butter.
Yep. Reality bites – hard.
Hitherto the truckers have not caused any damage at all. I'm not quite sure the elite sorts have figured out just how restrained they have been. And that could easily change if truckers feel they have nothing to lose.
And then there's the whole question of deciding to make deliveries to, say, supermarkets in Ottawa
The politicians are pissed that mass arrests aren't occurring as many Truckers have their families with them which mean children. With everyone with cameras everywhere, it's not a good outcome for the government to drag them away.
Really irritated the local Ottawa council that they were having fun and not destroying property as now 'bouncy castles' inflated and kids playing aren't a good sign of this insurgency. Declaring another 'State of Emergency' for the Truckers having fun isn't going to go well in the history books.
It IS Interesting Times as in Chinese Curse, Peter.
I hope everybody has been paying attention and has ample back up supplies for their food, fuel, water and MEDS.
The Fools in their Ivory Towers will not go down peacefully
The really great asymmetry here is that if the Powers That Be do crush the truckers, the freight don't move, and the Powers lose anyway.
So pretty much all they can do is yell at the KHAAAAN!voy, claim in the face of all evidence it's a violent insurrection, send Brownshirts to attack it and use those attacks as proof of violence (hey, it works for keeping Ben Shapiro off college campuses!), and indulge in random outbreaks of egregious police brutality and other blatant injustice while the cameras are running (which always does wonders for the regime's legitimacy).
… Oh, and weren't those trucks supposed to be full of Greek, er, Russian troops?
ottawa police are chomping at the bit, ready to enforce their authoritay. they took fuel from supporters bringing it in for the truckers. a judge made them give it back but the ottawa popo added water to it for spite. real classy coppers you got there canada. every trick they pull, the convoy gets stronger.
"The question is, can the Canadian version of the "deep state" come up with any alternative to crush the truckers? I'm willing to bet that the US "deep state" is wargaming exactly that issue right now, because the chances of a US trucker blockade are getting better and better as our people see the success of the Canadian effort."
No, they cannot. The truckers are holding a Deadman Switch: "take them out", and you also take out all deliveries to Canada of anything: fuel, food, and Everything.
In chess, when all the opponent has is a King, he cannot attack.
Turdoo is now checkmated, and has nothing left for offense that doesn't cut his throat politically, and permanently. And it galls both him, and all PTB, that mere truckers have pointed the knife so accurately.
Now we find out how accurate that "nine meals away" model of societal distress is, don't we?
And coming soon: the American version of "Truck Fudeau" is coming, with the promise of the exact same scenario.
And the American elites can helicopter out of the District of Criminals, but if they do, the capitol goes up in flames. Which would likely open the ball nationwide, everywhere you have a blue hive idiot in charge.
The peasants are learning how to wage 4G war.
To me it seems selfish of one to wish they didn't live in such interesting times. This especially in consideration that all of human history points to authority (government, et al) seeking to everymore centralize and increase its power.
We know such is the case for history shows it always follows the same path; that very path we see now in our time. So if it were to come, wouldn't we want it to come in our time, therefore to spare the future generations.
This current situation presents yet another example of why we so need the LORD.
As someone who grew up in western Canada and who still has family there, having listened to the stories from my family of how Canadians are reacting to Covid and the increasingly strident anti-Americanism, I am running out of sympathy for Canadians. Lots of fine people, NACALT, etc but if they won't do something for themselves I don't care anymore.
(Actually had neighbors call the cops on my parents when they went for a walk, together, masked, on a sunny day, not interacting with anyone else, while they were in a two week quarantine. They got threatened with 10 years in prison and a $700,000 fine. My dad's response "do they have extended care facilities in your prisons? Cause I'll be 94 when I get out". My mum was mortified. š¤£)
So if they start to run out of things because trucks can't get across the border, too bad, so sad. We can use the trucks here to alleviate our supply chain issues and they can start to make better choices. My family will be fine as they can always come live with me.
Castro's bastard son holds a two-pair pokerĀ handĀ consisting of the black aces and black eights and he shoved all his chips in, hoping that the truckers would blink.
I have never heard of a national government being overthrown by loud horns.
Jericho
As mentioned, Trudeau seems to have no good way out of this. Will he take the Johnson route and fold, or will he take the NZ/Aus route and hit back hard, regardless of the optics?
I haven't heard it called blockshipping, but know the concept. Sinking a ship is easy; getting it out is very difficult. And as mentioned, not just in Ottawa but several places in Canada.
More importantly, once this ball starts rolling, it can't be stopped. IF the government clears Ottawa and the other current choke points, it will only take a couple trucks to repeat it somewhere else. In South America, both bandits and terrorists have shot out truck tires on highways to stop traffic for days when the truckers were NOT in on it; think how effective it could be if the truckers WERE in on it.
Another example: If a driver is going to have his truck repossessed because he can't drive without the shot, why not jam it somewhere import and hard to remove, then walk away?
Say, how many of those trucks are manual shift?
Jericho, yep. But it was a city, not a national government. That being said, Canada could use a Joshua. So could the US.
Here is an excellent reporting on what is currently happening with the Canadian Truckers Convoy.
https://joannenova.com.au/2022/02/truckers/
It's really driving the politicians Ape Shit crazy.
So on the Tw*tters there's this tw*t:
Juliette Kayyem
@juliettekayyem
The convoy protest, applauded by right wing media as a "freedom protest," is an economic and security issue now. The Ambassador Bridge link constitutes 28% of annual trade movement between US and Canada. Slash the tires, empty gas tanks, arrest the drivers, and move the trucks
She is getting considerable push back from people pointing out how much harder it is to move trucks when their tires have been slashed and fuel tanks emptied. Apparently she's a Harvard prof, CNN Anal-yst, former Obama official etc. as opposed to the usual non-credentialed internet blowhard so clearly she knows better
It gets "better" she has a follow up
Trust me, I will not run out of ways to make this hurt: cancel their insurance; suspend their drivers licenses; prohibit any future regulatory certification for truckers, etc. Have we learned nothing? These things fester when there are no consequences.
North America is apparently awash with unemployed fully vaccinated truck drivers who can't wait to get back behind the wheel… Presuming of course that the wheels in question have been moved from the places where they were blocking and now have their tires replaced. Said tires needing to be moved from the tire factories by umm? err? magical unicorn farts?
Towing a Big Rig is an expensive job. Typically it is a minimum $1000 for a quick, simple, short distance tow. Plus, you can't tow a big rig backwards any distance. On those city streets, just turning a Prime Mover towtruck around without the use of a clear intersection may not be possible, due to their wheelbase length and corresponding turning radius.
Those size towtrucks are not common, as they are very expensive to build and operate. They can cost $500k-750k.
The brakes are air controlled, and without air pressure, each wheel pair has springs that lock the brakes, requiring each one to be manually caged to allow them to roll. Cutting the air hoses is a quick job. Time consuming to just get the truck ready to move in this case.
Cutting the tire stems so the tires are flat REALLY adds time to the attempt to move the truck, as the wheels have to be removed and the tires taken off the rims to access the stems for replacement. Flattening all the tires on a fully loaded rig MAY destroy the tire carcass as the rim may damage it from folding.
If the truck is empty, it MAY be possible to move it with a medium duty tow truck, but if loaded, nope.
Not only are big rig towtrucks rare, but their trained, licensed drivers are nearly as rare, themselves.
The reality is that if truckers want to shut down a city, they can do it. Either by blocking the roads, or simply not delivering anything to them, if the cops get nasty about attempts to block.
A bit of both at the same time would strangle a city.
An interesting perspective from a blogger who lives at "ground zero" for the protest:
https://maybury.ca/the-reformed-physicist/2022/02/03/a-night-with-the-untouchables/
Hardly surprising, this type of reporting doesn't happen with our (taxpayer subsidized) media. (Note: This is from a week ago; it doesn't fully describe what's happening now)
My opinion is that we're seeing a pretty effective round of civil disobedience, and that if we find that civil disobedience isn't an option (shut down by whatever level of government through police action) then there won't be a lot of other ways to show our lack of support beyond violence.
Look, the People haven't even begun to fight yet. If the gubbmint uses any kind of force, how hard would it be to convince railway workers to walk out and stop all rail traffic? How about deliveries of jet fuel? Is the military going to supply enough jet fuel to keep the airports open? How about longshoremen at ports? How about blocking the entry points at major ports? How about parking trucks across train track at vulnerable crossings? There is so much more that these guys could do. It shows how vulnerable all of our economies are to simple simple disruptions to logistics.
@Austin, Horns is the least of it. Don't tell me you've never heard of governments in effect giving up to general strikes in the end? The government might stand, but the politicians involved are toast. And politicians mostly care about themselves above all else. Ever of Solidarity? They were suppressed for a while, but only by martial law imposed by a totalitarian government with a large powerful military establishment backed up by the might of the Soviet Union. Solidarity won in the end. What do you think Justin Castreux can do that wouldn't start a final preference cascade against him and his government (keeping in mind that Canada has a parliamentary system)?