Pentagon Approves National Guard Request as Trucker Convoys Head to D.C.

[Stealers Wheel]

I'm starting to wonder if we shouldn't just deploy a bunch of truckers to the Ukraine. They apparently can paralyze whole governments.

The only reason this the case is because Western democracies are showing restraint. If this were to occur in Moscow, there would be no such restraint. The truckers would have be ordered to move along, and if they refused they would be pulled from their cabs and summarily shot. That's how Trump's hero Putin deals with protestors.

Shall Biden become more like Putin?

 

[dcsports]

Yeah, you might wan to the let the DC NG know that. They seem to be under some misguided notions.


It everybody's -anybody's - fault but Trump's. He sat there in the WH watching the chaos unfold and did nothing for several hours, because according to you, it wasn't his job. He was just supposed to sit there and watch like all the rest of us.

I get that you want to blame EVERYTHING on Trump, but this one isn't on him. It wasn't up to him to request the national guard on behalf of the city or capitol, and he wasn't required to approve it. It's 'below his pay grade'.

And I did NOT say it was 'everybody's fault but Trump.' I said it was 'the fault' of the Capitol Police and their supervisors. They didn't make the request because of optics.

As a side note - this should have been the first issue reviewed by the January 6 committee - the failure of security for the capitol.

DOD details National Guard response to Capitol attack

WASHINGTON – Once the reality of the assault on the U.S. Capitol became apparent, National Guard troops responded appropriately and with alacrity, Department of Defense officials said in a phone

www.nationalguard.mil

"District of Columbia officials knew of the planned protests and had requested some assistance when the "First Amendment demonstrations" were planned for Jan. 5 and 6, McCarthy said. Based on this request, officials called up 340 National Guardsmen to help. The Guardsmen were assigned mainly to traffic control, Metro crowd control, some logistics support and a 40-member quick reaction force to be based at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland. "No other requests were made," the Army secretary said.

But the protests turned into a mob rioting through the halls, chambers and offices of the U.S. Capitol. At around 2 p.m., D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser requested more assistance. Acting Defense Secretary Chris Miller immediately called up 1,100 members of the D.C. National Guard. At the same time, officials were collecting Guardsmen at traffic points and Metro stations and returning them to the D.C. Armory to refit for a crowd control mission, the secretary said. Their mission was to support D.C. Metropolitan Police and Capitol Hill Police.

Guardsmen started flowing into the area of the Capitol soon after and reinforced Metro Police on the perimeter of the Capitol. This allowed the police and FBI to clear the chambers and offices of the U.S. Capitol, McCarthy said. "By 7:15, both chambers and leadership offices were cleared, and members were able to return to business, and we began the planning for the following day," he said.

At 6 p.m., Miller authorized the mobilization of up to 6,200 National Guard members from Maryland, Virginia, New York, New Jersey, Delaware and Pennsylvania. These service members will flow into the city over the next few days and will help secure the peaceful transfer of power to President-elect Joseph Biden on Jan. 20.

 

[highroller]

The truckers have a right to protest. They don't have a right to stop traffic and turn the area into a mess.

I wish they would protest peacefully and not cause a traffic mess and hope that is what they do.

I hope that the National Guard won't be needed but it's best to have them around just in case.

I just have to ask, why now? The mandates are being eased. The time to protest was when it all started.

Not when it's all ending.

MSN

Yeah i remember 2020 too…

 

[Anthony60]

The only reason this the case is because Western democracies are showing restraint. If this were to occur in Moscow, there would be no such restraint. The truckers would have be ordered to move along, and if they refused they would be pulled from their cabs and summarily shot. That's how Trump's hero Putin deals with protestors.

Shall Biden become more like Putin?

Keep. Pushing. Narrative. Trump and Putin, working together, even though all evidence shows the opposite. Just say it, over and over.

 

[dcsports]

The only reason this the case is because Western democracies are showing restraint. If this were to occur in Moscow, there would be no such restraint. The truckers would have be ordered to move along, and if they refused they would be pulled from their cabs and summarily shot. That's how Trump's hero Putin deals with protestors.

Shall Biden become more like Putin?

Next time I will tag with [sarcasm]. I thought that was clear. I wasn't literally suggesting that truckers could stop a Russian invasion. My apologies.

 

[Anthony60]

Or D11 dozers

Where were they when the leftists were burning buildings all over America in 2020? No NG when they attacked the White House and injured scores of Secret Service agents. Those "protests" were okay, right?

 

[Cope]

There are multiple studies that say you're wrong about masks not being effective against spreading disease.

And besides that, does it ever occur to you that all surgeons in all operating rooms across the nation insist that everyone in the room wear a mask during surgery? Are all those doctors stupid or just part of the centuries-long conspiracy to thwart your freedoms?

Read the room. The federal Democrats certainly are.

 

[TomFitz]

You're deeply trapped in a delusion.

Trump, a self-styled maverich reformer, innocently demanded reform for NATO, including NATO partners paying their fair share as per their commitments to the organization, and for that the corrupt NATO lobby got stirred up like a hornet's nest and came down on him like a ton of bricks. Within hours of Trump's statement, NATO shill Madeleine Albright appeared on MSNBC, expressing her alarm and calling Trump "crazy" -- all because he dared to ask NATO members to pay their fair share. Within a few days, allegations suddenly surfaced that Trump's campaign manager Paul Manafort had "worked for Russia" (so had his Democrat colleague, and furthermore they'd also worked for Ukraine.) Then those allegations were quickly spun into "suspicions" that Trump had ties with Putin. And the Russia Collusion Hoax went into high gear --- all because Trump had dared to ask hallowed holy NATO to pay their fair share.

And ignorant people like you just swallowed this conspiracy theory hook, line and sinker, without even challenging it, when it wasn't even based on any evidence whatsoever -- not a shred of it.

I am under no delusion.

Trump is a fool and weakling.

He was also a narcisstic sociopath. A personality type taht actually derives a sense of power and pleasure from creating uncertainty and chaos in everyone around them. That was the pattern of his life.

Even if you accept the notion the he “innocently demanded reform for NATO”, asking for (never actually specified) reforms and more financial commitment is done on a very high diplomatic level. Not bellowed from a stage in front a bunch of drooling fools, or on Fox Noise or Twitter.

But it was a campaign gimmick for him. A way to play the the white resentment crowd (although it was mainly a play to the jingoistic and xenophobic nature of the nativist audience. Trump followed up these public demands with regular attacks are repetition, and told his audience the NATO was going to “pay us back”.

The no nothings bought this lie at face value.

But all of the bellicose bellowing sowed distrust of the United States throughout Europe and most of the free world. And the disease spread throughout our allies on Asia as well.

Paul Manafort did work for Russsia. He worked for the Russians in Ukraine, and when the puppet government he was hired to promote in Kiev fell to a popular uprising, he moved on to handing over campaign internal documents to his Russian friends in 2016.

Trump kowtowed to Putin for going on six years now, including his latest disgrace.

Russian oligarchs hold all of the mortages on Trump properties (no American bank will lend to him). So, yes, Trump was always in the hook to Russian interests.

BTW, I could have told you that twenty years ago. But then, Trump was just another sleazy failed developer with one foot in bankruptcy court and the other on a banana peel.

 

[Stealers Wheel]

Keep. Pushing. Narrative. Trump and Putin, working together, even though all evidence shows the opposite. Just say it, over and over.

Tell you what. You show me once instance in the past 5 years where Trump has been critical of Putin and I'll stop. How's that?

If you can't tell, this is a challenge. I bet you can't rise to it.

 

[sanman]

"Fair share" - BS!

Did you know that the United States of America spends LESS of its GDP on NATO than Canada (and each of 24 other NATO members)? Did you know that the only NATO members who spend less of their GDP on NATO than the US does are Spain, Belgium, and Luxembourg?

​

What the US government is asking the NATO members to do is to spend as much money on NATO (as a percentage of GDP) as the US spends on its entire military commitments around the world.

The US would have to increase its spending on NATO by 42.685% just to reach the AVERAGE amount that NATO members spend on NATO and would have to increase its spending on NATO by 72.117% to equal the 2% of GDP that the US government has deemed is the "fair share" to be contributed to the military aspects of NATO.

When the US is spending as much of its GDP on NATO as North Macedonia is spending on NATO, get back to me.

Uhh, where the **** is NATO located? It's located in Europe. Certainly European countries should be expected to pay a larger share of their own defense burdern.

What share of GDP do European countries contribute for security in Asia? Or the Middle East?

America spends on those things too, while European countries do not. You talk like the entire world should revolve around NATO and security in Europe. The United States has other security burdens it has to deal with. Therefore pretending that America's NATO spending should be judged against the entirety of its GDP is absurd, when America's attentions are split across multiple security domains.

 

[TomFitz]

Plenty of evidence from Hunter Biden's laptop.

That’s what trump dead enders call “proof”.

When challenged for actual evidence, you parrot a right wing boogey man.

And since this whole BS was manufactured by the Russians and fed to Giuliani for the purpose of trying to help Putin’s pet get re-elected, you should be especially embarrassed that you’re still parroting Russian propoganda.

Even Tucker Carlson is having second thoughts about that (which apparantly came from being condemned by everyone but the most hard core of trump dead enders.)

 

[TomFitz]

Uhh, where the **** is NATO located? It's located in Europe. Certainly European countries should be expected to pay a larger share of their own defense burdern.

What share of GDP do European countries contribute for security in Asia? Or the Middle East?

America spends on those things too, while European countries do not. You talk like the entire world should revolve around NATO and security in Europe. The United States has other security burdens it has to deal with. Therefore pretending that America's NATO spending should be judged against the entirety of its GDP is absurd, when America's attentions are split across multiple security domains.

Really?

That’s the metric that your failed former wannabe fuhrer used.

 

[TU Curmudgeon]

What is salient in that chart is not the two columns on the right, but the one to the left. Though it would be interesting to see how it is figuring what is spent "on NATO", what they are SUPPOSED to be doing is spending at least 2% on DEFENSE, that can then be transmitted to NATO if/when necessary.

Hog wash. The US government is claiming that the other NATO countries are not "paying their fair share OF THE COST OF NATO".

Would you like to tell me how much money the NATO countries spend to "defend Taiwan"?

Would you like to tell me how much money the NATO countries should be spending

If a country spent 0.0001% of their GDP on defense, buying a single platoon of drunks who lacked rifles, but somehow on that chart claimed that all of them were for NATO, that's not going to make them an actual ally and partner. It makes them a free rider.

True.

Now, please name the country which is spending 0.0001% of its GDP on defence (buying a single platoon of drunks who lacked rifles) and claiming that all of them were for NATO?

 

[What if...?]

Is there a list of protesters which are allowed to 'shut down traffic and cause a mess'? Asking for Seattle and Portland.

BILLY DID IT TOO!

Worked on zero mothers ever.

 

[TU Curmudgeon]

Trucker convoy in DC? What are these idiots protesting?

I think that they are "protesting" the same thing (identities changed) that the Canadian "truckers" were "protesting" - that they had to provide proof of vaccination in order to return to the United States of America from Canada (which they couldn't enter unless they had been vaccinated).

 

[What if...?]

Once upon a time, the Left claimed to represent the blue-collar working class people.
Nowadays, the Left sneer, smear and spit on the blue-collar working class people, calling them deplorables, ignorant dolts, racist, misogynist, etc.

The Left have ditched the blue-collar working class people, in favor of globalism and their new buddies on Wall Street and Silicon Valley, big capital and big tech.

Anyone remember Orwell's Animal Farm and how it ends? Nah, that's banned reading among the Left.

‘Cept us union guys. I have never been spit on by democrats. Maybe it’s not “blue collar workers” you’re talking about but just run of the mill assholes that happen to be blue collar workers.

 

[TU Curmudgeon]

We were promised a Super Bowl protest to... that never happened.

DAMN GOOD THING TOO!!!

<SARC>Those fascist commies don't DARE interfere with a function that is ESSENTIAL to the national culture, government, and economy of the United States of America.</SARC>

 

[TU Curmudgeon]

I am under no delusion.

Trump is a fool and weakling.

He was also a narcisstic sociopath. A personality type taht actually derives a sense of power and pleasure from creating uncertainty and chaos in everyone around them. That was the pattern of his life.

Even if you accept the notion the he “innocently demanded reform for NATO”, asking for (never actually specified) reforms and more financial commitment is done on a very high diplomatic level. Not bellowed from a stage in front a bunch of drooling fools, or on Fox Noise or Twitter.

But it was a campaign gimmick for him. A way to play the the white resentment crowd (although it was mainly a play to the jingoistic and xenophobic nature of the nativist audience. Trump followed up these public demands with regular attacks are repetition, and told his audience the NATO was going to “pay us back”.

The no nothings bought this lie at face value.

But all of the bellicose bellowing sowed distrust of the United States throughout Europe and most of the free world. And the disease spread throughout our allies on Asia as well.

Paul Manafort did work for Russsia. He worked for the Russians in Ukraine, and when the puppet government he was hired to promote in Kiev fell to a popular uprising, he moved on to handing over campaign internal documents to his Russian friends in 2016.

Trump kowtowed to Putin for going on six years now, including his latest disgrace.

Russian oligarchs hold all of the mortages on Trump properties (no American bank will lend to him). So, yes, Trump was always in the hook to Russian interests.

BTW, I could have told you that twenty years ago. But then, Trump was just another sleazy failed developer with one foot in bankruptcy court and the other on a banana peel.

Just thought that I'd pass this one along.

​

 

[SuperDS77]

Tell you what. You show me once instance in the past 5 years where Trump has been critical of Putin and I'll stop. How's that?

If you can't tell, this is a challenge. I bet you can't rise to it.

Can anyone post this?

 

[TU Curmudgeon]

Uhh, where the **** is NATO located? It's located in Europe. Certainly European countries should be expected to pay a larger share of their own defense burdern.

ALL members of an alliance are expected to contribute to the defence of that alliance. In order to consider whether or not the member's contribution to the alliance is appropriate, then the percentage of the member's military spending that is directed toward that alliance is the appropriate measure - NOT the totality of the member's military spending.

What share of GDP do European countries contribute for security in Asia? Or the Middle East?

What European countries are members of Asian, or Middle Eastern, defence alliances?

America spends on those things too, while European countries do not.

That is because the government of the United States of America has deemed that spending to be in the best interests of the United States of America. Other governments have not deemed that that type of spending in in the best interests of their own countries.

You talk like the entire world should revolve around NATO and security in Europe.

Nope, only that, when you consider the amount of spending that a member claims is "appropriate" then you should also consider the amount of spending that that member actually contributes to the alliance.

The United States has other security burdens it has to deal with.

True, and if some other country does NOT have the same "security burden" to deal with, why should it be spending defence money on it?

Therefore pretending that America's NATO spending should be judged against the entirety of its GDP is absurd, when America's attentions are split across multiple security domains.

The US government is quite clear that it holds that every country that belongs to NATO should be spending 2% of its GDP on defence (almost all of which would be spent on NATO). Were those countries to be doing that, then the US would not have to spend a dime on defending either itself or the other NATO countries from Russia, but the other NATO countries would be spending 2% of their GDP to defend the United States of America (and all of the other NATO countries) from Russia.

Talk about a "free ride".

 

[Stealers Wheel]

When we talk about European countries "spending on NATO" what exactly is it we expect them to be buying? Oh yeah! Now I remember! American planes, tanks, bombs, bullets and guns. When we bitch about NATO countries not spending enough on NATO, that's what we're talking about. War is a major industry in the U.S., and the rest of the world had better pony up their fair share.

 

[dcsports]

Hog wash. The US government is claiming that the other NATO countries are not "paying their fair share OF THE COST OF NATO".

Would you like to tell me how much money the NATO countries spend to "defend Taiwan"?

Would you like to tell me how much money the NATO countries should be spending

True.

Now, please name the country which is spending 0.0001% of its GDP on defence (buying a single platoon of drunks who lacked rifles) and claiming that all of them were for NATO?

You keep pointing to an irrelevant metric. The issue is not "how much money NATO countries spend on 'NATO' (which you seem to define as money spent in Europe). The metric is percent spent on defense period, the idea being that each country should maintain a sufficient force so that they can come to the aid of the others if needed.

Trump didn't pull this out of the air either. It's been an ongoing topic of discussion - and NATO countries committed to use it at a summit in 2014 (Obama administration). The target being 2% of GDP on defense by 2025.

NATO Spending by Country 2024

And no, at 1.4%, Canada isn't there.

Military spending per GDP by country 2022 | Statista

Ukraine has the highest military spending by GDP. This is unsurprising following Russia's invasion of the country in February 2022.

www.statista.com

 

[TU Curmudgeon]

You keep pointing to an irrelevant metric. The issue is not "how much money NATO countries spend on 'NATO' (which you seem to define as money spent in Europe). The metric is percent spent on defense period, the idea being that each country should maintain a sufficient force so that they can come to the aid of the others if needed.

That is an interesting proposition. When did the US come to the aid of Poland in WWI and WWII?

Trump didn't pull this out of the air either. It's been an ongoing topic of discussion - and NATO countries committed to use it at a summit in 2014. The target being 2% of GDP on defense by 2025.

NATO Spending by Country 2024

And no, at 1.4%, Canada isn't there.

Military spending per GDP by country 2022 | Statista

Ukraine has the highest military spending by GDP. This is unsurprising following Russia's invasion of the country in February 2022.

www.statista.com

The rationale that the US government uses is "NATO defence" (well, actually, albeit not spoken aloud in polite company "the defence of the interests of the United States of America") and NOT "defending every country in the world from every other country in the world".

How much of the US defence spending is on defending Russia from China or vice versa?

 

[dcsports]

Really?

That’s the metric that your failed former wannabe fuhrer used.

It's the metric that NATO uses.

 

[Metric Mouse]

DAMN GOOD THING TOO!!!

<SARC>Those fascist commies don't DARE interfere with a function that is ESSENTIAL to the national culture, government, and economy of the United States of America.</SARC>

Yeah, seems like some people make up very serious claims that never come true. On the other hand, LA did corral up homeless people and cart them away from the Superbowl (without providing them any place to stay.) So everyone was happy, it seems...