Truckers on Front Line Keep America Going Amid CCP Virus Pandemic

LONDON, Ohio—One industry that’s rolling on throughout the closures and social-distancing measures is trucking.

For years, the unsung road warriors have delivered essential goods, but scarcity has recast them as heroes in providing the necessities and comforts that Americans rely on.

“America’s truckers are on the front lines of our nation’s response to the #COVID19 pandemic,” the American Trucking Association wrote on Twitter on March 18.

The association went on to thank President Donald Trump for “highlighting their heroic and vital efforts, delivering food, water, fuel, medicine, medical supplies and other essentials.”

As states close their rest stops and restaurants shut down, some truckers are finding it more challenging to make quick pit stops.

Randy Griffith hauls a daily load of propane in his Freightliner from Walton, Indiana, to cities in Ohio, mostly. On March 19, he had dropped off a load of Blue Rhino propane tanks for grilling in Columbus, Ohio.

“I’ll go back to Walton tonight, pick up a loaded trailer, and go to Hamilton for tomorrow,” he said.

He had stopped at the TA Truck Service stop in London, Ohio, to use the restroom and “get something besides my own cooking,” he said, holding a bag of Popeyes Chicken. “Because I can cook in my truck. I got an electric skillet. I got a Crock-Pot. I got a fridge. So, I basically only have to get out of this thing to go to the bathroom and get fuel.”

Griffith lives in Elkhart, Indiana, and usually goes home on the weekends.

“But I don’t think I’ll be going home this weekend. I’ll self-quarantine in my own truck,” he said. He has a wife at home, as well as four children and a grandbaby close by.

“The only reason I don’t want to right now is because I’ve been basically out in the public. I don’t need to take it home to them, if I do catch something,” he said. “I’m more worried about if I have something and bringing it home to them.”

Griffith has been driving for 15 years altogether, with a break for college in between. Usually, traffic is the bane of a truck driver’s life, but right now, the roads are emptier than ever.

https://www.theepochtimes.com/truckers-on-front-line-keep-america-going-amid-ccp-virus-pandemic_3281722.html

Are Dems Refusing to Support $2 Trillion Stim Bill Unless It Includes a Bailout for Planned Parenthood?

Earlier on Sunday, Secretary of the Treasury Steven Mnuchin sounded optimistic that Republicans and Democrats were getting close to finalizing a $2 trillion stimulus package for the American people and businesses.

AP:

“I think we have a fundamental understanding and we look forward to wrapping it up today. It will get done,” he said on “Fox News Sunday, saying the plan was meant to prop up the nation’s weakened economy for the next 10 to 12 weeks.

“I think the president has every expectation that this is going to look a lot better four or eight weeks from now,” Mnuchin said. “If for any reason, 10 weeks from now with this virus we haven’t won this, we’ll go back to Congress again.”

But that optimism disappeared a few hours later after Democrats balked at several sections of the bill that failed to advance their political agenda.

The Hill:

Democrats worry the language is vague enough that corporations could take federal help and still fire workers. Democrats also wanted strong restrictions on corporations who take federal help, but the source said the GOP bill included “very weak” stock buyback restrictions that could be waived by Mnuchin.

The GOP bill, according to the source, also increases a “corporate bail out fund” to $500 billion. Senate Banking Committee Chairman Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) had pushed to increase the $208 billion proposed in the original GOP plan to ensure distressed industries have access to capital.

A Democratic aide confirmed the change, characterizing the bill as currently drafted as a “non-starter.”

Even more ominous to Democrats was a Medicaid restriction that would hurt Planned Parenthood and other non-profits.

A Democratic aide said that the small business provision was drafted to exclude non-profits who receive Medicaid from being eligible for Small Business Administration assistance offered under the bill. That, according to the aide, would impact Planned Parenthood but also community health centers, rape crisis centers and disability service providers.

Planned Parenthood is not a "small business" and non-profits, as their name implies, aren't "businesses" either. Tens of millions of dollars – or more – could be denied to real small businesses who need that cash as well.

https://pjmedia.com/trending/democrats-refusing-to-support-2-trillion-stim-bill-unless-it-includes-a-bailout-for-planned-parenthood/

US Commandos Deployed to 141 Countries

They made their way to 72 percent of the nations on this planet, Nick Turse reports. And criminal misconduct followed.

Last October, a group of eight Apache attack and CH-47 Chinook helicopters carrying U.S. commandos roared out of an airfield in Iraq. They raced through Turkish airspace and across the Syrian border, coming in low as they approached a village just north of Idlib Province where Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, his bodyguards, and some of his children were spending the night.

The helicopters opened up with their machine guns, while military jets circled above and 50 to 70 members of the U.S. Army’s elite Delta Force stormed into a compound just outside the village of Barisha. When it was all over, Baghdadi’s home was rubble, an unknown number of people living in the area, including civilians, had been killed, and he and two of his children were dead — victims of a suicide vest worn by the ISIS chief.

That commando raid in Syria was the highest profile U.S. Special Operations mission of 2019, but it was just one of countless efforts conducted by America’s most elite troops. They also fought and died in Afghanistan and Iraq while carrying out missions, conducting training exercises, or advising and assisting local forces from Bulgaria to Romania, Burkina Faso to Somalia, Chile to Guatemala, the Philippines to South Korea.

Last year, members of the Special Operations forces — Navy SEALs, Army Green Berets, and Marine Raiders among them — operated in 141 countries, according to figures provided to TomDispatch by U.S. Special Operations Command (SOCOM). In other words, they deployed to roughly 72 percent of the nations on this planet. While down from a 2017 high of 149 countries, this still represents a 135 percent rise from the late 2000s when America’s commandos were reportedly operating in only 60 nations.

As General Richard Clarke, chief of Special Operations Command, told members of the House Appropriations Committee last year:

“Our worldwide access and placement, our networks and partnerships, and our flexible global posture enable the Department [of Defense]… to respond across the spectrum of competition, especially below the threshold of armed conflict where our competitors — particularly Russia and China — continue to hone their skills and advance their strategic objectives.”

This near-record level of global deployment came as questions swirled about mounting malfeasance by some of America’s most elite troops and was accompanied by handwringing from leaders at Special Operations Command over possible ethical failings and criminal behavior among their troops. “Recent incidents have called our culture and ethics into question and threaten the trust placed in us,” Clarke wrote in an August 2019 memo. Those “incidents,” ranging from drug use to rape to murder, have spanned the globe from Afghanistan to Colombia to Mali, drawing additional attention to what actually happens in the shadows where America’s commandos operate.

https://consortiumnews.com/2020/03/20/us-commandos-deployed-to-141-countries/