The ending years of the 20th century saw three theorists developing hypotheses related to societal collapse of states. George Cowgill (1988:263) saw internal economic reasons – societies that depend on taxation develop increasing numbers of people and organizations that are legally exempt from taxes . . . and increasing numbers of taxpayers find ways to avoid taxes illegally. Bureaucracies – expensive bureaucracies – grow, with “increasing corruption, rigidity, incompetence, extravagance and inefficiency.” Simultaneously, citizen expectations of state services increase.
Jared Diamond looked at growing populations mandating agricultural intensification – and that intensification carries with it unanticipated consequences – soil erosion, problems with water management, deforestation, etc.
Joseph Tainter looked at complexity – challenges in production are met with increasing complexity (1988:88-90) and listed 8 causes for the collapse of complex societies.
Resource Depletion
New Resources
Catastrophes
Insufficient response to circumstances
Other complex societies
Intruders
Mismanagement
Economics
Economic factors and mismanagement kind of go together. If we look at the bureaucracies that keep our nation state functioning, we find ( https://www.federalpay.org/employees )
2,807,126
EMPLOYEES
732
AGENCIES
$76,667.77
AVERAGE SALARY
$215.22B
TOTAL SALARY
Now if these numbers seem large, the Census provides us with numbers for state and local governments: 19,768,685 employees, with $89,265,296,554 in total salary. Frankly, I don’t trust my data – it comes from two sources, and the proportions look a little strange. But questionable data isn’t the problem – we’re talking over 22 million government employees to manage. Tainter’s 7th cause of collapse is mismanagement.
The total number of jobs listed for the US in February 2022 was 150,399,000 – and a little bit of rounding tells us that about 2/15, or 13% of US jobs are for one form of government or another. On one hand, 13% of the nation’s jobs are to make government work – which is a large expense. On the other hand, there is a tremendous opportunity for Murphy to get into a system this large and complex and arrange for things to go wrong.
Under the heading of Mismanagement, Tainter’s explanation is “The elite in a civilization may so abuse their power and direct so much of the surplus wealth and labor of their society to their own benefit that not enough is left for the maintenance of the economic and political system, leading to collapse.”
If you’re politically on the left, you can readily see where the fat cat right wing elite can do this. If you’re politically on the right, the stories of Joe Biden and son that are available support Tainter’s explanation. If you’re somewhere in between, Tainter makes even better sense.
Simply enough, the more moving parts there are in a system, the more opportunities Murphy has for things to go wrong. The less competent management is, the more opportunity there is for systemic failure. It kind of goes back to Malthusian demographics – for a bit over 225 years, our society has developed increasingly complex systems that made Thomas Malthus wrong. The thing is, Malthus only has to be right once.
Article 1, Section 2, Clause 3 covers two things – the Census and apportionment of representatives in Congress. Here it is:
Representatives and direct Taxes shall be apportioned among the several States which may be included within this Union, according to their respective Numbers, which shall be determined by adding to the whole Number of free Persons, including those bound to Service for a Term of Years, and excluding Indians not taxed, three fifths of all other Persons. The actual Enumeration shall be made within three Years after the first Meeting of the Congress of the United States, and within every subsequent Term of ten Years, in such Manner as they shall by Law direct. The Number of Representatives shall not exceed one for every thirty Thousand, but each State shall have at Least one Representative; and until such enumeration shall be made, the State of New Hampshire shall be entitled to chuse three, Massachusetts eight, Rhode Island and Providence Plantations one, Connecticut five, New-York six, New Jersey four, Pennsylvania eight, Delaware one, Maryland six, Virginia ten, North Carolina five, South Carolina five, and Georgia three.
The last sentence doesn’t count anymore. The critical terms are that the “respective Numbers, which shall be determined by adding to the whole Number of free Persons, including those bound to Service for a Term of Years, and excluding Indians not taxed, three fifths of all other Persons,” “and within ten years.” It doesn’t say citizens. On the other hand, we quit excluding “Indians not taxed” back in 1924. We quit counting slaves as 6/10ths back in the 1870 Census. https://www.kff.org/other/state-indicator/distribution-by-citizenship-status/?currentTimeframe=0&sortModel=%7B%22colId%22:%22Location%22,%22sort%22:%22asc%22%7D will take you to the individual states populations listed by citizenship.
Six or seven percent of US residents are not US citizens – but the number varies by state. Over 99 % of Montana residents are citizens. Almost 95% of Californians are citizens. The average congressional district has about 761,000 people (2020 Census) – Montana’s population in 2020 was 1,137,233 and we have 2 congress critters. Basically, we don’t have any complaints about being underrepresented this time around. Before the 2020 Census, we only had one congresscritter – and were extremely underrepresented.
So there are a couple questions about Trump ordering another census. The Enumeration clause says “within 10 years.” I suspect that five out of nine Supreme Court Justices will agree that 6 years is within 10 years. (I won’t guarantee that they will agree with me, but they should) Then there’s the question of whether illegal aliens should be counted. That’s going to be one for the courts – but if a guy can’t be there legally, I can’t see why he should be counted as a resident.
By choice, I’d see congressional seats apportioned by number of citizens – but that isn’t how our founding fathers wrote the Constitution.
This article is excerpted from a report I made to Trego’s school board several years ago. I don’t have an answer to what went on when Eureka Elementary and Lincoln County High Schools were unified by election in 1988 – the relevant board minutes were missing, and Joel and I were unable to find them.
I began looking for data when I read of Eureka’s Elementary district’s inability to pass a levy for a new school building – the suggested alternatives included getting the high school to build a new school, and passing the existing high school on to the elementary district. While it was offered as an “out of the box” solution, it has been done before – the Lincoln County High School I attended is now the Eureka middle school.
As a Trego taxpayer, I have the privilege of supporting LCHS and Trego Elementary – but when LCHS buildings go to Eureka Elementary, we Trego residents have effectively been taxed to support Eureka Elementary as well as Trego Elementary. (Joel tells me that Eureka Elementary paid LCHS a fair price for the old high school – but as I rewrite these notes, I still don’t know what the fair price was. Trego and Fortine districts provide about 20% of the High School tax base. Turning the old high school into the middle school is a great deal for Eureka – but may have been unjust taxation for Fortine and Trego landowners. I have assurances that that is not the case – but I do not have figures that allow me to do my own calculations.
Understanding the significance requires data. And that data is available at https://svc.mt.gov/dor/property/cov#/256 where the state shows market and taxable values for each district. To minimize the data dazzle, I will attempt to explain using only the market values of District 13 elementary and District 13 high school, then converting them to percentages for ease of understanding. (this data is from my original report to the Trego board, and is not current)
High School District 1,375,196,172
Elementary District 1,108,162,025
Subtracting the elementary market value from the high school market value shows that 2,670,341, or 19.4% of the property tax values going to LCHS are from Fortine and Trego districts. The decisions on running the high school are made by five board members elected from the Eureka elementary district – the appearance of representation for Fortine and Trego is a member from each small district, outvoted at the best, and, at the worst a pair with Quisling quality loyalty to the communities they represent.
I believe that the codes mandate that the Fortine district trustee be voted in by Fortine, and Trego’s trustee be voted in only by Trego voters – but I have found no evidence that elections have occurred in that manner.
I have been gathering data to better understand the governance of Lincoln County High School over the past three years. It is a bit perplexing . . . LCHS has, throughout my lifetime, been closely related to Eureka Elementary. When I attended LCHS, the cafeteria was over in the Roosevelt building. Roger Ranta was superintendent over both LCHS and Eureka Elementary. The lines of demarcation were never well defined. In many ways, LCHS and Eureka Elementary have behaved as a unified district over at least the past sixty years – but with lip service toward recognizing the outlying districts (now only Fortine and Trego) as part of Lincoln County High School’s district and independent of Elementary 13.
MCA 20-6-101-3(4) states “As used in this title, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise, a county high school is a high school district that has not unified with an elementary district under 20-6-312. The context of the name “Lincoln County High School” does not clearly (or even murkily) indicate unification with Eureka Elementary. I suspect that this section of the law was why discussion of the need to change the high school’s name was reported in the Mountain Ear when the unification was discussed in 1988. (Joel tells me that the two districts are not unified, but that they operate together under a memorandum of agreement)
I began searching for documentation of unification when I read that comment in the Mountain Ear archives. I now have a copy of the April 20, 1988 letter to the trustees of Eureka Elementary, District 13 from Cindy Middig, then Lincoln County Superintendent of Schools. That letter begins: “Congratulations on the success of your unification election” then gives instructions on actions that need to be completed before July 1st, 1988.
Since Eureka/LCHS does not term itself a “Unified District” while Libby does, I am assuming that a more detailed review of the LCHS minutes, or the Lincoln County Superintendent’s correspondence will unearth more relevant information. Middig’s letter ends with “The additional high school trustee nominating areas (the 3 outlying districts) will remain the same. The trustees presently representing them, Mrs. Lora Johnson (Trego), Mrs. BeeGee Cole (Fortine) and Penny Williams (Rexford) are hereby appointed to hold office until a successor is elected and qualified at the next regular school election in April of 1989.”
The fortunate thing is that BeeGee Cole and Ted Roo (LCHS board chair at the time) live. When I called BeeGee she recalled being appointed to the High School board to represent Fortine, but had no firm recollection of anything being done to unify the districts. She explained to me that she was a Fortine board member and sent by the board to represent the Fortine District at the LCHS board meetings. This differs substantially from the role Marcy Butts filled on the LCHS board, and it appears that change is a result of Cindy Middig’s letter. It appears that Middig did not consider that her change to the board structure would essentially create a taxation without representation situation when the Eureka Elementary Board could vote to take high school properties that were 20% funded by Fortine and Trego.
I spoke with Ted Roo, whose recollection was that Cindy Middig’s letter removed all the high school board members and gave all the authority over the school to the elementary board. From Ted’s recollections, we can point to April 20, 1988 as the time when the event occurred. (Ted only served on the high school board, and ceased being a board member with Middig’s letter.) If Ted’s recollections are correct, we need to see if “The Lincoln County High School Trustees” performed all the requirements for the first transaction listed in Middag’s letter.
Since the May 16, 1988 minutes show LCHS board members Ted Roo, Lora Johnson, Penny Williams, L. Jack Higle, Andy Ivers and BeeGee present, we need only review the minutes from that date through July, 1988 to determine if the LCHS board completed that required transaction before July 1, 1988. My reading of the Middig Unification letter is that, if that transaction was not performed by the LCHS board before July 1, the unification did not legally occur. The old Mountain Ear article pointed out that there was a discussion that the name of the high school would be changed – yet it remains Lincoln County High School. The unchanged name suggests that there is a significant possibility that the requirements listed by Middig were not performed.
If those three specific actions Middig’s letter says were required before unification could occur were never done, as I read the letter, the unification was never completed. Yes, that would create a challenge to getting LCHS a high school board after the Elementary board has controlled both operations for 35 years – but I know of no statute of limitations that forces us to accept governmental misconduct or blunders. MCA 20-6-312 lists the requirements for County high school unification. 20-6-313 seems to support Middig’s instructions: “(1) Whenever a county high school is unified with the elementary district where the county high school building is located, the following transactions must be completed on or before the July 1 when the unification becomes effective:”
Since the High School continues to operate as Lincoln County High School, which name does not clearly indicate the unification with Eureka Elementary, and after talking with then LCHS board chair Ted Roo, I have questions on whether those required transactions occurred – the LCHS name continuation suggests that there is, at the least, some probability that the Middig letter unified the districts, but the other activities that were required to occur before July 1, 1988 did not.
I (along with Superintendent Joel Graves reviewed the records from May 16, 1988 through August, 1988, and we were unable to find the minutes that described the board activities to complete the following transactions required in Supt. Middig’s letter:
1. The Lincoln County High School trustees shall surrender all minutes, documents, and other records to the trustees of the “new” high school district.
2. The county treasurer, after allowing for any outstanding or registered warrants, shall transfer all end-of-year fund cash balances of the county high school to similar refunds established for the high school district. All previous years’ taxes levied and collected for the county high school shall be credited to the appropriate fund for the high school district.
3. The board of county commissioners shall execute, in the name of the county, all necessary and appropriate deeds, bills of sale and other instruments for the conveyance of title to all real and personal property of the county high school, including all appurtenances and hereditaments, to the high school district.
Another necessary search through Eureka’s records is to determine the circumstances of the transfer of the old high school building from LCHS to the Eureka elementary district. If the LCHS board was eliminated – and I trust Ted Roo and his memory – the Eureka Elementary board held five of the votes that transferred the county high school to the Eureka Elementary District.
I asked Suzy Rios, Lincoln County Superintendent of Schools, to search her department’s records from May 16, 1988 to August 1, 1988 to see if documentation exists that provides further information on the unification election – but I suspect that the county superintendent’s record went the same way as Extensions – and I disposed of Extensions records when they had been spoiled by years of a sewage leak in the annex basement.
Middig did not complete her term of office, and was replaced by Mary Hudspeth as County superintendent of schools. The dates when Cindy Middag left the office and Mary Hudspeth came in may explain some of my confusion. (At Trego, we are missing our 1988 and 89 board minutes)
If neither Superintendent can find evidence that the LCHS board took the action Superintendent Middag required, our next step is to ask Sedaris Carlson (County Treasurer) to see if those actions required of the county treasurer occurred. If they did, it is evidence that the unification occurred. If not, it supports the null hypothesis. Again, 1988 was early in computer evolution – any records will be on paper, and have long been stashed away somewhere.
We can also check the county commission’s records for the same time period to see if their required actions were performed. Their minutes for the middle of 1988 will show, or not show, if they did what they were required to do.
As I understand it, if Superintendent Middig’s letter stood without negation, we have a high school that is unified with part, but not all, of its constituent elementary districts. Since Fortine and Trego both exist as independent districts, Eureka elementary has essentially been granted power to tax both Fortine and Trego for the high school district, then turn the high school property over to the elementary district. If I recall correctly, taxation without representation was the impetus behind the American revolution. This situation also suggests that if the unification did occur, Cindy Middig did not correctly consider representation and taxation of Fortine and Trego – which is probably a constitutional issue.
My conversations with BeeGee and Ted leads me to these tentative (and testable) assumptions:
Prior to the unification vote the outlying districts assigned board members to the LCHS board. This makes sense in terms of communication both ways.
The unification vote that was announced as a success by Supt. Middig was partially enacted – the high school board was replaced by Eureka Elementary’s board, plus a mandated representative from Fortine and from Trego. Rexford later entered Eureka as a consolidation – ownership of Rexford school and its history may show something: If the necessary transactions were completed, the building would have been property of the consolidated district when Eureka took over Rexford district. Additional research needs to be done on the old high school. Joel explained that Eureka Elementary bought the old high school building from LCHS – that can provide a great deal of light to the questions. If it was purchased from LCHS, that indicates that there is no unified district. If it was sold at less than fair market value, that indicates the high school and elementary districts were acting as a unified district to the economic disadvantage of Fortine and Trego taxpayers. If the building was still owned by LCHS, it strongly suggests that the transactions Superintendent Middig demanded were not completed.
Whether LCHS and Eureka Elementary are unified or not, the LCHS board is set up to exploit Trego and Fortine. I cannot even vote against the Eureka board member who votes to finance a new high school and sell the existing building to Eureka Elementary for $100 the minute the high school bonds are paid off . . . and a single Trego rep, not even connected with Trego’s board can’t change that. A governing board with five votes out of seven can institute a policy that elementary students can be transported by high school buses from Trego, through Fortine, to Eureka Elementary. This amount of power over the two small districts that Cindy Middig granted to Eureka Elementary seems not only unconscionable, but unconstitutional.
My thanks to Joel Graves and Suzy Rios for their help in reviewing the records – and demonstrated the old research adage: “Absence of Evidence is not evidence of absence.”
Our high school board is not (and has not been for over 35 years) matching this description:
Montana Code Annotated 2023
TITLE 20. EDUCATION
CHAPTER 3. ELECTED OFFICIALS
Part 3. School District Trustees
Membership Of Elected Trustees Of County High School District And Nomination Of Candidates
20-3-356. Membership of elected trustees of county high school district and nomination of candidates. (1) The trustees of a county high school district must include the following:
(a) four trustee positions filled by members residing in the elementary district where the county high school building is located; and
(b) three trustee positions filled by members one of whom resides in each of the three trustee nominating districts in the territory of the high school district outside of the elementary district where the county high school building is located. The county superintendent shall establish the nominating districts, and, unless it is impossible, the districts must have coterminous boundaries with elementary district boundaries.
(2) The provisions of 20-3-305 govern the nomination of candidates for the trustee election prescribed in this section.
I was reading an article that described several reasons why the government doesn’t work. It was a generalized article, and as I thought of the additional challenges our three county commissioners have – beginning with the geographic challenges – I realized that it was time to develop a few articles that explain the challenges to good government that our county faces.
It isn’t that we have bad county commissioners – as I was retiring from SDSU and moving back home, Lincoln County had one of those rare elections for commissioner . . . one with two good candidates, Mike Cole and Steve Curtiss. Mike won – but whichever way the vote had gone, the county would have had a good commissioner. After a single term, Mike Cole lost his bid for reelection to Josh Lecher. This year, after a single term, Josh lost the primary to Noel Durum. And whether he does a good job or a poor one, Noel is unlikely to win reelection at the end of his first term.
To understand why Lincoln County’s government doesn’t work well requires a bit of study. I’m going to start in 1909, when Lincoln County was carved out of Flathead. Things started with a good, logical base. The problem in function came 60 years later, with a change in geography.
Lincoln County was created to duplicate the Kootenai’s drainage – and along with that, the county was connected by the railroad. In 1909, the county towns (excepting Yaak and Sylvanite) were connected by the railroad. A slow train, stopping at each station, connected what had been isolated communities. It wasn’t a bad idea.
Sixty years later, the gates at Libby Dam closed, and Ural, Warland, Rexford and Gateway were flooded. The railroad was relocated to a spot where it runs through Stryker, Libby and Troy, stopping only at Libby. Still, the railroad served as central to the county for a short time – but the link was the ranches and towns along the Kootenai. When Libby Dam was complete and Koocanusa filled, the commercial link between north county and south county was severed. J. Neils had linked lumber workers from Libby through Rexford for 60 years – but the Dam ended the railroad, the social linkages and the commercial timber connections.
For the past half-century, Lincoln County has been disconnected, with a nearly unpopulated area that exists from Jennings Rapids to the mouth of Pinkham Creek – connected by the lonely highway 37.
Next issue – why our elected county government lacks control over our hired bureaucracy.
To tell the truth, I can’t tell you which phrase fits. I’ve probably built both – long before some anti-gun politician or activist came up with the two phrases.
As I understand it – and my understanding of how guns work is a lot better than my understanding of anti-gun folks – a ghost gun is a gun built on a receiver that I built or finished at home, while a zombie gun is a gun that had its original receiver destroyed, and all the parts were recycled and built back into a gun on a new receiver.
Time was that a lot of second-hand parts for model 1911’s were available -and an outfit in California was selling complete aluminum receivers (with serial numbers) for $29.95 plus shipping. I think that when I put all the pieces together, that qualified as the zombie gun. In those pre-neuropathy days, to me it was just the cheapest way to get a 45 auto.
If I wanted a pistol that grouped better, I’d usually start with a steel frame, and include some parts that never saw government service. Accuracy in a 1911 correlates with hand work – and fewer recycled parts meant that it was going to take more time to get the 1911 working reliably. Those old government surplus parts often had a lot of wear on them.
This is a photo of one of those fed ord frames – not one that I built on, but only the serial number is different:
Now a ghost gun is built on a less-finished (80% complete) receiver like this one. You can order it through the mail, and finish it at home – you’ll notice that it needs the slots milled for the slide rails, and then moved to the drill press to get a few holes drilled. It has no serial number – but adding a serial number is a fairly easy task. It just requires a stamp set and a hammer.
Frankly, it’s a lot less work to buy the completed frame – and the 80% receiver isn’t that much cheaper. Either way, I think I was putting zombie guns together. The couple of 80% receivers I did finish probably qualified as ghost zombie guns. Or maybe Zombie ghost guns. I don’t know. I’m not a hoplophobe.
Time was when folks were buying 80% receivers for AR-15s, then having a weekend party with someone who had a milling machine, and carrying a complete AR-15 home, lacking only the serial number. Before completion, it looks like this:
I never found going the 80% route worthwhile. Anderson receivers were available at Cabelas, cost the same, were a lot less work, and could be purchased with points.
Generally speaking, it’s cheaper to get new parts for an AR, so the zombie option isn’t there. And the ghost gun option is just more work than it’s worth.
Still, there are a lot of parts kits available, for AK’s, CETME’s, old submachine guns, etc. For some, an 80% receiver is an option, where a new commercial receiver isn’t available. For others, a piece of metal tubing, a welder, and a dremel allow you to build a replacement receiver. There are molds available so you can cast your own plastic receiver for Glock parts.
The Supreme Court heard arguments in Garland v VanDerStok this past week – and probably we’ll learn next year if the 80% receivers remain legal.
Following events as they are happening takes a bit of work, and this more so than most. It has the advantage of being stretched out in time, so the reader isn’t overwhelmed by a bunch of things happening all at once, but finding what, and why and when proved more difficult.
Here’s what I have found (incomplete, both due to the sheer amount of information, and my inability to read French).
“Freedom Convoy” set to pass through Regina on trek to Ottawa (620 ckrm)
Alberta senator calls anti-mandate protesters a “systemic problem” (The Counter Signal)
Trudeau slams ‘fear mongering’ over COVID vaccine mandate for truckers (National Post)
Who’s Fuelling the Truckers Protesting Vaccine Mandates? (The Tyee)
The trucker caravan from the Edmonton, Alberta, area alone yesterday was said to be more than 40 kilometers in length before arriving in Calgary to head east to Ottawa.”
50,000 trucks heading toward Ottawa to demand an end to COVID mandates (Life Site)
Wednesday Jan. 26– Convoy scheduled to depart Kenora for Thunder Bay
Transport minister concerned trucker convoy becoming a lightning rod for far-right fringe (National Post)
“Freedom Convoy” organizer says it’s not affiliated with extremist groups (Daily Hive)
Massive Crowds Cheer as Canadian Truckers Lead ‘Freedom Convoy’ Protesting Vaccine Mandates (CBN News)
Trucker convoy reaches Ontario amid fears of violence from fringe groups in Ottawa (blogTO)
“The small fringe minority of people who are on the way to Ottawa who are holding unacceptable views that they are expressing do not represent the views of Canadians who have been there for each other”
-Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau
“…small fringe minority….”
Friday Jan. 28– Convoys depart for Ottawa- with only two routes scheduled to reach Ottawa on Saturday
Ottawa is canceling police officers’ days off as the Freedom Convoy protests continue. Some have worked 2 weeks without a break. (Insider)
GiveSendGo fundraiser for Freedom Convoy hits $4.5 million after GoFundMe shuts page down (The Gazette)
SaturdayJanuary 15th- requirements for entry into Canada changed for unvaccinated (or partially vaccinated) truck drivers. While Canadian truck drivers can still enter Canada (and be subject to testing and quarantine requirements), those that are not Canadian will be turned away at the border.
COVID-19 vaccine mandate, ongoing labour shortages challenging for Manitoba trucking industry (CBC News)
Wednesday Jan. 19– Canadian Trucking Alliance (CTA) releases statement on Protests- in short, they do not support them.
The trucking industry was caught by surprise on Jan. 12 when the Canada Border Services Agency sent a statement to media saying that unvaccinated and partially vaccinated truck drivers crossing into Canada from the United States would remain exempt from the vaccine mandate that had long been expected to come into force last weekend.
The federal government reversed that the next afternoon with a statement that said the information shared the day before had been sent in error. The exemption would still end Jan. 15, meaning truck drivers would need to be fully vaccinated if they wanted to avoid a two-week quarantine and pre-arrival molecular test for COVID-19 before crossing into Canada.
President of the Private Motor Truck Council of Canada, Mike Millian, discussed the vaccination requirements in both the United States (beginning Jan. 22) and Canada
Convoy of truckers against vaccine mandates ready to roll on Ottowa (Toronto Sun)
Sunday Jan. 23– Convoy was scheduled to leave Prince George at 7 AM, bound for Calgary, while another departed for Calgary from Vancouver.
Hundreds of truckers headed to Ottawain ‘Freedom Rally’ convoy against vaccine mandate (CBC News)
At this point- I might recommend muting youtube, otherwise there is a lot of honking.
Canadian Truckers Lead ‘Freedom Convoy’ To Ottawa To Protest Vaxx Mandate (Daily Wire)
Thursday Jan. 27– Several Groups rolling on thursday; The group from Thunder Bay scheduled bound for Sault STe. Marie, with additional groups departing from St. Johns, Enfield, Riviere-du-Loup, Windsor, Sarnia, Niagra and Toronto
Canadian ‘freedom’ truckers massive vaccine mandate protest convoy may smash world record (Fox News)
Canadians Furious After Trudeau’s ‘Fringe Minority’ Comment As Thousands of Truckers Head to Capital (Daily Wire)
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says he is isolating after learning of COVID exposure (Toronto Star)
Freedom Convoy plans to gridlock Ottawa until all vaccine mandates repealed (Edmonton Journal)
Elon Musk tweets in support of Canadian truckers ahead of ‘Freedom Rally’ protest (MSN)
This trucker thing probably isn’t going to end well (National Post)
Polls Show Popular Support for Trucker Convoy in Canada Despite Trudeau’s Claim it Represents ‘Fringe Minority’ (American Greatness)
Saturday Jan. 29– Last two convoys scheduled to arrive in Ottowa
Freedom Convoy: Why Canadian truckers are protesting in Ottawa (BBC News)
Trucker convoy rumbles into Canada’s capital carrying COVID and mandate beefs (Freight Waves)
Canada’s ‘Freedom Convoy’ of up to 50,000 truckers begins to arrive in Ottawa ahead of a weekend of protests against the vaccine requirements to cross (Canada Free Press)
Washington Post political cartoon labels trucker convoy as ‘fascism,’ which ignites fierce firestorm: ‘Devoid of wit or truth. Shameful and pathetic.’ (Blaze Media)
Demonstrators descend upon Sask. Legislative Building for ‘solidarity convoy’ opposing vaccine mandate for truckers (CTV News)
Fact Check: Canada truck convoy not an official Guinness World Record (Yahoo News)
Freedom Convoy 2022, Saturday: Thousands pack Parliament Hill for protest (National Post)
Terry Fox statue defaced with “mandate freedom” amid Ottawa Protest (Daily Hive)
Province in Canada bans gathering along highway ‘in support of the 2022 Freedom Convoy’ (BizPac Review)
Trudeau Flees as trucker convoy Enters Ottawa (The Week)
Trucks traveled great distances to be in Ottawa, so did police snipers (Toronto Sun)
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau silent as thousands join truckers’ protest in Ottawa (National Post)
Justin Trudeau and his family flee Canadian capital Ottawa as up to 50,000 ‘Freedom Convoy’ anti-vaccine mandate truckers arrive at his office -days after he dismissed them as a ‘small fringe minority’ (Daily Mail)
The “Freedom Convoy” is being prepared in Europe (French Daily News)
Military tells Ottawa to find someone else to evict the truckers (National Post)
Freedom Convoy Expected to Grow! Truckers Vow to Continue “Until It’s A Free Nation Again (SGT Report)
Ottawa police deploy more officers ahead of weekend demonstration
Where did all of the THOUSANDS of trucks end up in Ottawa? Diverted by police AWAY from downtown (Rebel News)
Tow Truck Companies Refuse to Remove Convoy Trucks
Truck convoy: $9.8M class-action lawsuit filed against “Freedom Convoy”; GoFundMe ends fundraising campaign; Protesters spotted in the suburbs; Kitchen erected in Confederation Park (The World News)
‘Vancouver doesn’t want you here’: Mayor addresses Saturday’s planned protest convoy (Vancouver is Awesome)
Possibly a Freedom Convoy getting started in Berlin, but my German is as poor as my French, so I’m not certain.
Sunday Feb. 6 Protest Day 9
State of emergency declared in Ottawa
Breaking: Man charged in Winnipeg car attack on convoy protest is radical-left anarchist (Rebel News)
Freedom Convoy Raises $2M on GiveSendGo After GoFundMe Removes Campaign (Newsweek)
Trego's Mountain Ear 