Recent Dearbon Incident Narrative Collapses

The Detroit Free Press: Police: Officers fatally shoot man after Dearborn mosque arson

So Sumdood, name still not officially released, sets a fire at the outside of a Mosque and then takes a shot at police when they show up.  Police perform the appropriate response and dropped him quickly and effectively to the rather cold outside air temperature.

Abed Ayoub, a Dearborn native who's the national legal and policy director of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, commended "the quick and rapid response by" Dearborn police. "We trust that all law enforcement agencies who are involved will conduct a thorough investigation to determine the cause and motivation behind the attack," Ayoub said. 

Well, no.  Expect the media and everyone else including all the politicos who condemned this act as terrorism against a house of worship in the article to immediately lose interest in the incident.

Why?

Because it turns out the attacker was an Arab Muslim who did it for so far unidentified reasons.  No telling if he's a Sunni annoyed at a Shia mosque or anything else so far. Do note that whenever a Muslim attacks a religious institution the first claim is its due to "mental health reasons" -  interesting, that.

Both the Detroit Free Press and Detroit News have failed to update their reporting to reflect that, allowing the false claim that this was a "domestic terrorism" (read right wing or MAGA types incident to fester.

The Intellectual Vanguard Of The Workers

Really, really,  hate that the Workers are uniting on their own without having the intellectual vanguard leading them.

Note that this person, Juliette Kayyem, is very much one of the elite.  

Married to a Federal Court of Appeals judge no less, and she was Obama's Assistant Secretary for Intergovernmental Affairs at the Department of Homeland Security and is currently the Senior Belfer Lecturer in International Security at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, where she is Faculty Director of the Homeland Security Project and Security and Global Health Project. 

She also presently serves as a CNN National Security Analyst.

So she's allegedly one of your betters and an "expert" on national security.

Yet, she doesn't know that draining gas from truck tanks and slashing tires results in trucks that are really difficult to move. She also does not know that that slashing a tire filled to 120 psi is really not a smart idea for the slashee's health - but could be fun for the rest of us to watch.

Obama really had the smartest people working for him, now didn't he?  And CNN and Harvard has her now - make of that what you will.

Meanwhile, the intellectual vanguard has managed to drive inflation to its highest rate in 40 years, with no signs of stopping, further harming the very workers they claim to champion.

Question For 2021 Taxes

Started doing my taxes this year and got to this screen:

So, does the Biden administration count as a federal disaster for tax purposes?

This Week's Hip Update: March of The Penguin

Last week through this Monday could have been titled: Citizen Cane.

Getting around using the cane for almost 100% of the time that week, only using toe walker for extra support in the shower and in crowded public places to avoid the hip getting bumped.

Per the doc and the PT person - in crowded spots I should still use the walker as people avoid it. Most people in crowded areas apparently ignore or just don't see canes, making the risk of getting your hip bumped pretty high.

This week since my Physio session on Monday late afternoon is more properly titled the March of The Penguin.

About 60% of the time indoors I'm walking without using any cane or walker at all as long as I'm not holding things or the leg doesn't get too sore. 

Mind you, It's more like hobbling than walking but I'll take it.  Looks kinda like this:

Are the kids mercilessly teasing me about this and calling me a penguin? Of course they are! 

I now have a major craving for some herring, dammit.

This morning I unconsciously penguin walked down the two stairs to the kitchen without a cane.  First time doing that.  Made a bit of shock when I realized I had done that and had to get back up the steps without a cane to get to where the cane was, but I did it no problem. Progress!

Certainly better mobility. Using Tylenol instead of the lighter pain control drug 66% of the time and almost done with the lighter pain control drug. Plan is it will be Tylenol only starting Monday. Pain is about a 2+ or so typically.  Heavy PT sessions make it a 3+ sometimes but that's the price of improvement.

Thankfully, the toes have stopped swelling up at night. The ankle seems to be getting better too, so only direct hip pain wakes me up in the middle of the night now. At least it makes sense.

Physio is going well.  Doing good walking around unassisted and doing the exercises.  Some still hurt quite a bit and are hard to do.  Still cannot bring my knee to my chest at all, it locks up well short and is my worst PT exercise right now.

Major swelling and tightness is still around the upper leg hip area as the muscles are still pretty angry about being moved around during the surgery and are making their displeasure still known.  Lying on my side, even my left side for PT treatments hurts like heck, and I'm not about to even try lying on my right side.

Overall, it's steady progress, I can do stuff this week I could not have even tried two weeks ago.

Still no bending at the waist past 80 degrees, or crossing legs or ankles for the next couple months, but may be cleared for driving and going up and down actual flights of stairs next week.

The Canadian Trucker Protest Now Well And Truly Has Their Attention

After being totally ignored by the US Media, and downplayed by Canadian Media, the Truckers found a useful lever for pressure that could not be ignored:  Having slowdowns/blockades at the Blue Water and Ambassador Bridges from Ontario into Michigan.

The Detroit News: White House worried about Ambassador Bridge blockade disrupting auto production

As well they should be.  It's very cute how Psaki and the Democrats are now all publicly concerned about violent protests, when this isn;t a violent protest at all:

"We support peaceful protest, but we have concerns when those protests turn violent," Psaki said. "And certainly I think it's important for everyone in Canada and the United States to understand what the potential impact of this blockage is on workers, on the supply chain and that is where we are most focused."

Let's note the truckers themselves have not been violent, the violence has all been coming from the Ontario government side with police seizing demonstrating trucker's fuel and food and government officials making threats.

Well, both major Michigan papers are now reporting on it, and both are now accurately stating it is about the vaccination mandate for trucker cross-border travel:

The Detroit News: What to know about the traffic delays at Ambassador Bridge, trucker protest over COVID mandate

The Detroit Free Press: Truckers protest at Ambassador Bridge over COVID-19 vaccine mandates: What we know

Hilariously, the Detroit Free Press states:  

Truckers calling themselves the Freedom Convoy are opposing a Canadian mandate requiring drivers entering Canada to be fully vaccinated or face testing and quarantine requirements.

But it didn't just start this week. [emphasis added!]

Before the Ambassador Bridge was targeted, truckers also protested in Ottawa, Canada's capital. 

Seriously Freep, thanks for finally telling us that you only deigned to cover it this week and it's been going on for longer than that in Canada's capital. Sheesh, kinda important news, that.

It's Not Due To Racism, it's Due To Incompetence, Criminality, And Ignorance

 The Detroit Free Press: Racial disparity in nonviolent gun arrests leads advocates to call for dropping charges

The news article could alternatively be called:

 Wayne County Clerk Doesn't Do It's Job, Minorities Hardest Hit 

The facts are that  Detroit is over 80% Black, so it's not surprising that 97% of those charged are indeed mainly Blacks that will get hit for carrying concealed without a permit.  

Add the fact that there's a vibrant criminal class that happens to be disproportionately Black in Detroit that is knowingly flouting the law and carrying illegally to commit crimes and the percentages are not surprising, nor explainable by simply pulling the race card.

Understand, the Prosecutor in Detroit is Black, the vast majority of the assistant prosecutors are Black, The Wayne County Sheriff is Black, and the Detroit Police Chief is Black.  The majority of the Detroit government is Black. 

Blaming this on race and Playing the race card against them is a fool's errand.

Of course, had Wayne County actually processed CPL applications in any timely fashion it would have alleviated a lot of these charges upon the otherwise law-abiding as the law-abiding people would have their CPLs.  Some people I know have been charged in Detroit due to expired CPLs, because again because the Clerk is not doing her job. The Wayne County Clerk continues the delays to this day.

Some of the charges are also unfortunately due to ignorance and people not knowing the law. 

Michigan has open carry, and open carry without any permit is lawful. But, having a loaded pistol in a vehicle, even if it is visible,  is not open carrying but is essentially considered to be concealed and thus requiring a CPL.  People who don't know better, but really should, doth make this mistake a lot.

In short the problem is very real, and a mix of actual criminals getting caught and the innocent swept up with them due to carrying illegally through ignorance, but racism has damn well nothing to do with it.

Piper And The China Olympic Games

Piper, in addition to being 75% Airedale and 25% Poodle, seems to have some mountain goat in her.  She does like to take the high ground.

 

Well, she decided to switch things up a bit and go low for a change 

Possibly one day she was contemplating the nature of things on her perch and decided that she wanted to view the Olympic games - live. Or, perhaps, she wanted to go try and free Uygurs from concentration camps, one or the other.

Either way, she launched her cunning plan in-house and started digging her way to China.

Shoe and chew toy for scale on the two main attempted Michigan-China tunnel connections.

Both holes, sadly for her but good for us, stopped far short of her intended destination. But, she did make it right through the carpet and under pad to the base netting of the under pad itself.

Ah well, the carpet had lasted 12 years, and other (smaller) holes from Jett's own carpet digging stage have been cunningly hidden by furniture.  No way to hide these though, she had to put them in very prominent spots.

It's now time to think about replacing the carpet with some wood or laminate flooring and spruce the place up a bit and make tunneling through just a bit tougher.

Canadian Freedom Convoy Finally Gets A Mention in The Detroit News And Detroit Free Press

Finally we get a mention of the Canadian Trucker protest that has paralyzed Ottawa for a week, and scared Prime Minister Trudeau into leaving town and into claiming the reason he has gone into hiding is he's gotten Covid after 2 vaccine shots and a booster. 

But, this reporting is only because the protest has caused a delay at the Ambassador Bridge Border Crossing to Detroit:

The Detroit News: COVID protest sparks traffic delays at Ambassador Bridge

Note the article states the mandates by both Canada and the USA requiring truckers have the vaccine so they may be in their cabs alone for hours will result in a further crisis to the supply chain between the two countries:

He [Chuck Lippstreu, president of the Michigan Agri-Business Association] estimated the mandates left 30-50% of truckers on the U.S. ineligible to cross.

"We are very concerned frankly that these policies are threatening international trade and commerce with our No. 1 partner," he said. "We urge governments on both sides to rethink some common sense exemptions."

That's a supply chain crisis completely created by the governments of the US and Canada right there, and for absolutely no good reason.

The Detroit Free Press also finally covered the protest: Bridge to Canada in Detroit closes as Canadian protesters block the trade route

Canadian Forces Say No To Trudeau Request To Crack Down On Truck Protest

Apparently Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau asked the Canadian Forces to help him get rid of the troublesome truck protestors and the Canadian Forces told him NO.

Good thing the Canadian Armed Forces have upheld their reputation as the Canadian Armed Forces and not tarnished it to become the Liberal Party's Armed Forces and interfere with peaceful protests.

A Proposal By The Gov For Outright Election Year Bribery

So what do you call it when during an election year a Governor who's been doing a pretty lousy job overall promises a bounty of $2,000+ annually to each of her strongest supporters?

A "retention bonus".

The Detroit News: Whitmer to propose $2,000 annual retention bonuses for teachers, staff

Well, it's only $2.3 Billion of our tax money over 4 years - with per the article most to be spent -- per Whitmer's urging, not surprisingly in this (election) year.

Funny how that works.

Pretty much an outright payoff and bribery to some of her key supporters - the Michigan Educational Association and its members - with other people's money.

Lockdowns Not Only Didn't Work, They've Caused Damage That Will Take A Generation To Unravel

 Not only did lockdowns not save lives from Covid,  they did more harm than good.

The ill-conceived Lockdowns did not just impose an economic catastrophe on the lower and middle classes and affected the mental health of millions - they've likely harmed our newest generation of children.

Ed Source:  Pandemic effects may have lowered baby IQs, study says

A new study by researchers at five universities found that babies born during the pandemic may have lower IQ scores than those born before it. Babies who came into the world before the coronavirus had a cognitive score hovering around 100, according to this study. But the test scores of babies born during the pandemic fell sharply, to around 78. That’s 22 points lower than what’s considered normal.

Let's explain just how huge such a drop of 22 points from the norm is.

Let's put it this way. 

The Dems love to rag on the military and claim military members are stupid. 

Remember when John Kerry   "told college students that if "you make an effort to be smart, you can do well. If you don't, you get stuck in Iraq."

Well, the US Army's IQ cut off for entry is around an 83 IQ (its complicated but pretty much that score when compared to the ASVAB minimum etc).  

The military already does not accept the lowest 23% of the population already.  (Insert leftists snide commentary about military members being dumb or "lowest of the low" (Yes a California Dem Teacher /city councilman made that comment) - when they're clearly not.  

In short, the average child born during the lockdowns and mandatory mask rules with an IQ of 78 is literally unable to serve in the military or indeed conduct themselves in what is becoming a more and more technological society that demands intelligence.

This is a horrific result of an ill-conceived and enacted policy and is going to have severe consequences for a very long time.

Some Really Great News!

Jett had his latest appointment with the Doggie Oncologist, and his third melanoma treatment shot in the series.  

The staff at the animal hospital are in love with him, he's very mellow and happy when he's there and he behaves really well and smiles at them a lot.

He walked out of the exam room wearing this:

The cancer appears to be in complete remission.  It has not spread to the lungs or lymph nodes. Let's hope the treatment keeps on working.

A couple more shots to go and the melanoma treatment series will be complete, and with any luck that will be the end of it.

The happy yet tired dog, now home on the bed, and relaxing accordingly after his vet visit.  Some great news to start the weekend.

Since The Biden Administration Is Floundering - Democrats Decide To Push For Gun Bans Again

The Biden administration has been having a rough start and is flailing about.

The failure of the Afghanistan withdrawal; the economy; inflation brought on by bad economic policy; oil and gas prices; the failure to pass his signature Build Back Better spending spree to further expand the debt and fundamentally reshape America and it's economy.

The failure to lead in Ukraine and green-lighting a Russian minor incursion and then walking that back.

The constant need for his publicists to explain that what Biden says in public is not actually Biden's policies. 

An utter failure to "defeat" Covid 19, and more Americans dead from or with Covid under Biden than Trump, far more than the 200,000 that Biden indicated was a level at which a president should resign for being a failure.

Clear signs that Biden ain't all there mentally or physically.

 On top of that, we get the January jobs report that 301,000 jobs were lost  - not the expected 200,000 gain, and the prior December jobs report also got adjusted downwards to show a job loss.  Funny howe that happens.

An approval level in the toilet and it's starting to swirl around the drain.

Impeding projected massive losses in the upcoming midterms

So what's a Democrat to do?

Anything to try and fire up their base and keep the support of their "progressive wing".

So, a push for Gun Control it is. Right on schedule.

After all, gun bans are still popular among the Democrats, especially amongst the more radical members whose support he needs.

It also helps distract from the defund the police fracas and Democrat Prosecutors' soft on crime non-prosecution of criminals measures while blaming inanimate objects and Republicans for the Democrat-caused crime wave.

Just like his sudden announcement that he's going to redouble his efforts to cure cancer on the day when the 300,000 lost jobs report came out, the gun control push is an attempt to distract attention from his and the Democrat's multiple and ongoing failures.

Funny how his announcement of his gun ban push repudiates the Democrats "Defund The Police"  line that was one of the causes of this massive spike in the murder and violent crime rate:

"The answer is not to defund the police," he  [Biden] continued. "It's to give you the tools, the training, the funding to be partners, to be protectors."

Something tells me the Squad isn't going to be happy with that line repudiating their defund the police refrain. Nice to see the reality check that defunding and demoralizing the police, and having Democrat prosecutors not prosecute crimes leads to a crime wave that makes the Democrats look rather bad.

May his gun ban push end in yet another failure for this administration.

Ow, What The Heck?

So, no ice machine yesterday, much sadness.

As such, I didn't put on the ice gel pack I've bought as a replacement at night, as falling asleep wearing it is not a good idea.  In short, you should ice an area for up to only 30 minutes at a time. Then  you need to give the icing treatment a break.

Swelling does continue to occur in the lower areas.  

Before the guys go "swelling heh, heh, cool" -- Well, it's not so much fun nor is there any swelling in that area, get yer minds outta the gutter. 

Generally, the swelling occurs lower down as the swelling around the quad muscle and hip seems to trap the blood farther down in the leg.

The right ankle again swelled yesterday night to the size of a softball.  Likely the heavy PT had something to do with that. Very productive PT session where I was walking around and doing exercises without a cane or any support or safety belt at all (kinda scary, and wobbly, but I did it)  - quite the workout.

Normally and unfortunately, I'm awoken in the middle of the night because of the right big toe swelling up and feeling like it had been sliced open and bleeding at the top, even though it is not actually doing that.  But it sure feels and hurts like it does.

But last night it wasn't the right big toe that woke me up, this time, it was the  Big Toe on my LEFT LEG.

Seriously left big toe?  Your leg wasn't even involved in this surgery! Knock that off.

Got the gel pack out, iced the right leg at the hip for thirty minutes which felt darn good, and everything settled down.

More outpatient PT today. More icing to come too. Time to go get better.

Ode To An Ice Machine

The ice and compression machine was picked up today as the prescription for it, even as it is not a covered expense, was for only three weeks. It was worth every penny of its uncovered out of pocket rental expense.

To say it was great is an understatement.

No need to constantly freeze ice packs, time their use or have to take either them or compression socks on and off all night.  Instead it pumped water through the black wrap and also would do compressions for it, while the separate calf compression units wrapped around the calf muscles and inflated and deflated at intervals to prevent clotting.

So instead of running to and from the freezer and running a timer. this machine did it all by itself.  The attached remote was also easy to grab and use rather than having to reach the machine.

Only downside was I could not remove those leg wraps by myself and thus needed help taking them off after each use. Also the ice wrap (the black item above) could have been a bit larger to fully cover around the entire leg, and the velcro on it stuck to everything including itself and was generally a pain to use, but overall it worked great.

Kinda noisy, but after awhile it became just some background white noise during rest periods.

Rather sad to see it go, as it really made these first three weeks of recovery much more pleasant. Farewell trusty ice machine, you will be missed.

Now on to using an ice gel pack for occasional relief.

Well That Cleared A Year's Worth Of Deductibles In A Month.

Got the bill in the mail for the surgery, which I have now paid.

Reading the top line I almost passed out.  Bottom line was quite a bit better by comparison, which is likely why they do it.

Our medical system is kinda crazy in terms of billing, but the level of care is rather great. 

A $60k top line, but then there's an insurance reduction of $47k.  Then followed by the  insurance company  payment of $10,842.82 and our deductible of $1,577.18.  So for a $60k charge, they actually got paid $12,420.00.  This is probably what they actually wanted to make from the outset in order to get a decent profit for a few rather intensive and high quality hours of care, so they had to raise the stated price to be able to get to where they wanted to be.

If anybody can make sense of this kind of system where the insurance company's contractual reduction is the majority of the stated charge, good luck with that.

Note that was just the surgery center and didn't include the separate bill from the surgeon, who, just like the surgery center, definitely deserved the money. So, understand that I'm not complaining at all, just remarking on the inanity of how the system works and how the top line price just has nothing to do with the actual final price paid.

Between the two invoices from them alone, we cleared our insurance company's annual High Deductible Health Care Plan out-of-pocket deductible for the entire year and all in the month of January! Ouch. 

We've only cleared that deductible in a year once before - last year when some other serious family health care problems occured and had to be dealt with, but then we hit the max in September, not January. 

Of course, some things aren't covered by insurance at all, such as the ice/compression machine so we paid that out of pocket, but the rental fee  for the 3 weeks for it was really, really worth it. Highly, highly recommended if you get offered it, do it.

Well, the rest of the year now has services without out of pocket deductibles so we've got that going for us, and that's nice.

If You Want To Play With The Sharks Part 4 - Well, Don't Tick off The Judge!

So I appeared on Zoom ready to defend against the Third Party Defendant's whacky motion for Summary Disposition.  Ready to go and well-prepped to argue this baby.

I and the pro per Third Party Defendant show up, but for some reason the pro per Plaintiff does not which is interesting.

Judge has us put our appearances on the record.

Then things get interesting.

He starts off by asking her:"Miss Third Party Defendant, did you write and submit this motion all by yourself ,and not get help from anyone else?"

She says yes, yes she did.

Then it gets more interesting.

The Judge goes "I highly doubt that.  I see the font, which is not usually a font submitted to this court, is the exact same as the one used by the Plaintiff in his prior motions."

Oh, that's Interesting.

"I see the style is also the same in terms of word choice and underlining and overall format."

Even more interesting.

"My staff sees from reviewing the history of the electronic filing system that this motion and your reply was not filed with the court by you, but by Plaintiff, and you were even served by him with a copy of the filing via the electronic system."

Ruh Roh Shaggy. This is getting good.

"Plaintiff cannot assist or represent you Miss Third Party Defendant, as that's the unauthorized practice of law, he can't write things for you or file things for you and you have to be truthful to the court about such matters. I as a judge have a duty to prevent such things as it is both unethical and improper for that to occur."

She then tries to interrupt, which really annoys the judge.   Quick tip - Never, ever, try to speak over a judge in their courtroom.  It never works out well for you.

The judge: "You may not interrupt me, I gave you an opportunity to explain at the start of this and instead you told me you wrote this all by yourself."

Then the hammer falls:

"I am striking this motion as a result. I want both Plaintiff and you Miss Third Party Defendant to appear in my courtroom in 21 days via Zoom to show cause why you both should not be held in civil or criminal contempt for the unauthorized practice of law and why you misled the court about this filing, and to explain the circumstances of this filing."

Kaboom.

"Mr. Aaron __, since they are both in pro per, please draft the show cause order and submit it with my court today."

"Yes, Your Honor."

"This motion is stricken and dismissed, sorry to waste your time Mr. Aaron __".

About time he got tired of their nonsense. 

Still, she can apparently refile this once she gets past the show cause, and might fix some of the major errors with it, causing me to work a bit more to answer it, but we will see how it goes.

Snowmageddon Or Snow-meh-geddon Approaches

Schools are already cancelled in the area.

The kids are happy as it is their first snow day in two years - Don't be in a hurry to blame global warming - last year was remote only so no snow days were to be had.

So far, it is raining and melting some of the snow currently on the ground,  but it's expected to turn to freezing rain then snow by 10am with 12-16 inches expected to fall in our area. 

That's a lot of snow, and could set a new record for this time of year.

So we're all tucked in here at the house.  We already have all necessary French Toast and Hot Chocolate making supplies on hand.

I'm currently medically prohibited from doing so, but both the snow blower and shovels are at the ready for everyone else to use.  I guess I'll just have to direct the snow clearing activities from within the house and keep the hot chocky flowing.

We will see if the Court Zoom hearing with the pro pers still goes forward later today.

Nova Scotia Targets The Law Right At The Trucker Protest

In Nova Scotia, Canada, the provincial government is running scared of the truckers' protest.

How scared?

Well they just passed an emergency declaration that bans not just blocking traffic in general,  but specifically bans a gathering of people beside a road from gathering and cheering in support of the trucker protest, and only the trucker protest and no other.  

Cheer by the roadside for BLM or any other favored cause?  Cool by them. 

Cheer on the freedom convoy? Fines for doing so range from $10,000 to $100,000 Canadian. Clearly the edict is designed to chill support for the trucker protest under penalty of law.

In the USA, this sort of law would be shot down pretty quickly in Court as a First Amendment violation in terms of not being content neutral and having massive viewpoint discrimination.

Canada, however, has no such First Amendment protection, and their Charter of Rights and Freedoms which declares it protects free expression - and standing by the side of a road doing nothing more than cheering on a protest is indeed freedom of expression - comes with a notwithstanding clause that the government can use to override Canadian's rights laid out in that document whenever it deems convenient.  This means freedom of expression in Canada and its provinces can be suspended whenever the government feels it may be inconvenient.

Clearly, the protesters simply need to rename the event to “Freedom in 2023” convoy and then section c of the law won’t apply and gathering and cheering by the roadside can take place so long as they don't announce they intend to interfere with the normal flow of traffic.   

That is one of the problems at making a law aimed at a specific protest only.

Talk about crafting a law directly at a single protest, sheesh. Methinks the Nova Scotia government really doesn't like the idea that  average Canadian is getting fed up with their arbitrary and capricious regulations.

On The Canadian Trucker Protest

In case you didn't know, and the MSM is doing their damnedest to make sure you don't.  For example, both the Detroit News and Free Press fail to mention what is going on with our neighbors to the South (and north - Michigan is funny that way) on the front pages of their websites, nor in the news section at all. You'd think news of this nature would be important to a main border state with Canada with close trade ties and dependence on Canadian parts for the automotive industry, but nary a peep.  Interesting, that.

The story -  thousands of truckers - 50,000 truckers or more - and trucks are descending on Ottawa to protest the Canadian government's mandate that  thy must be vaccinated in order to ship goods across the border and come back to Canada.  The US has announced a similar mandate. 

Both mandates are rather inane. 

The Canadian government under Justin Trudeau is in essence is busily shouting "Respect my authoritay" and the truckers are shouting back:  "No."

Justin Trudeau then bravely ran away from Ottawa tand fled to a secret location avoid the protesters. This is what happens when you make a substitute teacher a prime minister based solely on name recognition because of who his father was.

After all what do truckers do?  

They're driving their trucks in their cabs alone for hours, drop off their loads and come back, not exactly hotbeds of exposure or spread.

As much as they claim to be "following the science": in passing these inane regs that will further snarl the supply chain in both countries, the science actually indicates:

1. You can still catch Covid and variants if you're vacinated

2. You can still spread Covid and variants if you're vaccinated

3.  At best Vaccination does seem to offer some protection from Covid and variants, and you'll likely get having less severe symptoms as a result. 

4.  Unless you're over 70 (and much worse if you're over 80). As an aside, the average life expectancy in Canada is 79.9 for men and 84 for women, and US is 77 for men and 81 for Women pre-covid.  So unless youre of advanced age  close to your life expectancy average, and/or have serious comorbidities, the chance of death form Covid is darn low.

As such, there's really no longer a public health argument to be made for mandatory vaccination to stop the disease from spreading as works with other vaccinations.

The only remaining public health argument is that allegedly being vaccinated means with less severe symptoms you're less likely to need to go to a hospital and use public health resources - but we're seeing vaccinated people also having to be hospitalized so the data is rather unclear.

In short its a personal choice to have the shot and thus a shot at less severe symptomsor not, especially if you're in a low risk group.

Making truckers, who tend to be pretty active and in  lower risk groups in terms of age and comorbidity be required to get the shot is rather inane.

After all, this mandate only happened in January 2022 - truckers have been delivering goods across the border unvaccinated throughout this pandemic now for years with no reported mass outbreaks due to truckers, or any other outbreaks by them for that matter.

This more and more seems to be governments  being desperate to be seen to be "doing something" and flexing their authority without any real scientific basis for doing so - and with a further worsening of shipment delays be damned.

In short, they've had enough with government over-reaction and control over the past few years. You know its bad when you've managed to get Canadians of all people ticked off enough to get up and mount a serious protest: