Via valued commenters Anoniminous and RalfW, the “take back our country” rally was a resounding failure. Excerpts from “even the wingnut Washington Times” article on the fail parade:
Operation American Spring, billed as a Friday morning multi-million patriot march on Washington, D.C., to oust leadership from the nation’s capital — from President Obama to House Speaker John Boeher — has proven woefully below expectations.
“It’s a very dismal turnout,” said Jackie Milton, 61, a Jacksboro, Texas, resident and the head of Texans for Operation American Spring, to The Washington Times. He said hopes were high when he arrived in Alexandria, Va., a day or so ago and found motels and hotels were sold out for 30 miles around.
“We were getting over two inches of rain in hour in parts of Virginia this morning,” Mr. Milton said. “Now it’s a nice sunny day. But this is a very poor turnout. It ain’t no millions. And it ain’t looking like there’s going to be millions. Hundreds is more like it.”
Actually, tens is even more like it:
Assholes.
Botsplainer
Thanks, Obama. You crushed the economy so much that real patriots can’t afford to come turn you out of office….
dubo
Pretty clearly looks like TRILLIONS to me #UnskewedAmericanSpring
Mary G
The Twitter hashtag has been hilarious, all liberals laughing and pointing.
Mnemosyne
Because I’m sure that absolutely nothing else could possibly have been scheduled the same day or week as American Spring. No graduations, no conferences, nothing.
Calouste
There sure are millions laughing at them.
some guy
watched the Ustream for a while. pure comedy gold. when the camera panned it appeared to show a couple (maybe 3 or) dozen people standing around. “Just wait until Saturday” seemed to be the most common excuse/rationale for a crowd that was 9,999,950 people short of their expectations.
Dr. Bloor
Won’t phase them a bit. The ignorant fucktards can’t count well enough to realize what a collosal failure their revolution is.
srv
Well at least she isn’t rolling around in her medicare scooter.
Alas, I probably know people who know her.
Edit: Actually, it’s all my fault. I called 10 million hotel rooms and warned them Holder had called in a drone strike.
Wag
Dream big and accept the humiliation.
SiubhanDuinne
Oh, this makes me very happy. Very very Happy.
MomSense
Guess the revolution will not be attended.
raven
Of course we get to see some jackass with the puking buzzard on his jacket.
Southern Beale
“It seems they’ve overthrown a hot dog stand. Congratulations.”
Seriously, like we didn’t know it wasn’t going to be a big, fat, bust? And they said 10-30 million, HA HA HA HA HA
catclub
@some guy: “9,999,950 people short of their expectations.”
The original estimate was 10 to 30 million, wasn’t it? May be too late to check the website for the original.
Omnes Omnibus
These are but the pathfinders of the revolution. Millions trod the path they set. Just you mark my words.
Villago Delenda Est
As far as I’m concerned, every last one of these vile sacks of shit is an enemy of the Constitution of the United States, and should be treated as such.
lurker dean
#americanspringexcuses is trending on twitter. it almost seems mean to mock them at this point, then i remember what serious assholes these people are.
catclub
So has Col. Riley showed up?
Is he back home burglarizing the homes of those who went?
ETA: home
bemused
Very funny but not a surprise. However, that will not deter them from fervently believing the majority of Americans are totally with them. I can’t wait for their excuses.
Villago Delenda Est
@Southern Beale: Personally, I think the Bluth family should be very happy that they didn’t decide to do this in Santa Monica and burn down The Big Yellow Joint. There’s money in the banana stand, you know…
El Caganer
I’ve been following this at the office on and off all day, with much amusement. These folks are really delusional.
some guy
the dueling megaphones was funny. one guy would be halfway through a rant when ten feet away another blowhard would start his own rant with his megaphone. the best was when someone came to the podium and asked if anyone had seen her “new iPhone in the Otter case which fell out of my backpack somewhere over there.” off camera you can hear someone say “the Liberals stole it.” later someone else butts in with ‘it was probably an Obamaphone, so no great loss.”
pure comedy gold.
Villago Delenda Est
@srv:
This is the 21st century equivalent of “Do you have Prince Albert in a can?” or “Is Mike Hunt there?”
catclub
Any word on the Nevada meetup?
Alex S.
I guess if Obama’s no-drama style of politics is ever going to pay off, then it better does so in the next midterm elections. This time, there really is nothing to put the wingnuts into a frenzy. The mobilization on the conservative side is really low and there is no reason to expect a republican wave. Hopefully, the turnout difference between the two sides will be reduced.
Comrade Dread
The Native Americans would like a word with you, jackasses.
For that matter, so would the millions of other Americans who very much disagree with you on the direction you want to take the country.
If only there was some way we could all have a say in the leadership of our country. Maybe a day when we could all write down the folks we want to be in charge and carry out our will? And whoever has the most people backing them would take charge?
Russ
Is the guy who sold his jet ski there?
gbear
I liked a comment that every one of the attendees has a million voices in their head, so victory!
Some morons are tweeting photos of successful events (that include a Washington Momument surrounded by scaffolding) as proof that OAS is a glorious success. Of course they’re getting shot down within minutes when the source photo is found. This is entertaining.
dubo
@bemused: “Hyuck, Occupy just dissolved the moment it started to rain”
::ignores that Occupy continued through numerous storms until a horrendous campaign of police brutality against them::
::stays home from American Spring because it rained::
Elizabelle
Could not find anything on The Washington Post website about these deluded souls.
Is Fox covering it?
J.D. Rhoades
@Mary G:
All liberals laughing and pointing, with the occasional wingnut tantrum thrown into the mix for even bigger lulz. I’m lovin’ it.
Punchy
Speaking of assholes….
NonyNony
@Mnemosyne:
Having traveled to Washington DC on vacation in the Spring in the past, the idea that you would show up without a reservation and expect to get a room anywhere near the city for a weekend kind of boggles my mind. It’s not like DC is a little stopover on the freeway where traffic picks up on holidays but you can almost always find a room. Stuff happens around DC constantly and you always need to plan ahead. Just the regular tourism, conferences, and government meetings alone should be enough to make you plan ahead, but in the Spring? When High Schools are sending buses full of kids to the city for end-of-the-year educational trips? Yeah – from what I recall May is actually kind of a terrible time to visit DC.
catclub
@Comrade Dread: “The Native Americans would like a word with you, jackasses.”
I kind of thought that when I read the article by Bruce Babbit on making more national monuments.
His argument is: [We stole it fair and square] and now that land belongs to all the people of the the US, not just the ones like Cliven Bundy.
So I agree with Babbit but have my own misgivings.
Citizen_X
Moron. Doesn’t he even know how to fucking travel?
MomSense
@Mnemosyne:
Or did Eric Holder get to all the people who booked those rooms?? Maybe they are languishing in a FEMA camp somewhere!
catclub
@Russ: “Is the guy who sold his jet ski there?”
Nope, the magic beans never sprouted Harley’s like the guy told him they would.
PurpleGirl
@Omnes Omnibus: So they walked single file, in the previous footsteps so that their numbers couldn’t be accurately counted. Sorted like Sand people.
SatanicPanic
@some guy: Dueling microphones is a perfect metaphor for these clowns- “listen to MEEEEE!” “No shut up, it’s my turn!” Sheesh at least when people asked the bongo drums people at Occupy to take a break they did.
Patrick
@Punchy:
Just boggles the mind…
Morbo
Motherfuckers had some nerve to sing the National Anthem there.
dedc79
@NonyNony: I’ve lived in DC the past 12 years and your comment is spot on. April/May is peak tourism time here. Plus Congress is in session, plus college graduation season is coming up. There are a few giant new hotels under construction (in a city with a ton of hotels already) because demand is exceeding supply.
Schlemizel
I’m really surprised, I had not heard a single word of the Million Moran March before today. They really do live in a different world.
Patrick
What is it about democracy that these people hate so much?
Omnes Omnibus
@Citizen_X: Ah, I bet he could get a room at the Four Seasons or the Ritz-Carlton.
c u n d gulag
ROTFLMAO!
A snowy and bitterly cold winter didn’t stop George Washington and his Continental Army from spending months at Valley Forge, freezing, to continue the Revolution.
I’m sure if it had rained instead, he would have understood why virtually no one showed up, and told the ones who where there to go home, and cancelled the Revolution, just like these modern day Patriots!
Sheeeeeeeeeeeeeeesh…
raven
AMF asshole
CONGRATULATIONS!
@lurker dean: PILE IT DEEPER AND HIGHER. Fuck these people. Missed in the hilarity and schadenfreude is this: Their explicit goal is to overthrow the lawfully elected government of the United States of America. The only acceptable term is “traitors”, and there’s only one acceptable method of dealing with them.
Matt
Can’t wait for the wingnut explanation that there *were* 10 million people ready for this, but they didn’t want to get rained on. Because treason is OK, but damp hair? FUCK THAT! :)
Omnes Omnibus
@CONGRATULATIONS!:
Not treason, sedition.
raven
@c u n d gulag: When I went to DC to protest the war we slept on the fucking ground in the rain even after the Supreme Court said we couldn’t! Great headline in the WAPO “Vets Overrule Supreme Court”.
NonyNony
@Schlemizel:
I’m assuming I’m not subscribed to the right Direct Mail lists.
I’m also going to assume that somewhere a savvy grifter has hoovered up a lot of fools’ money in non-refundable “organizing fees” for this little event. I wish I had fewer scruples because damn – I bet there’s a ton of scratch to be made in parting ignorant, racist idiots from their money. (Perhaps my scruples need to be checked again – maybe I actually don’t have a problem with parting ignorant, racist idiots from their money. Hmmm….)
Mnemosyne
@Matt:
To be fair, it’s hard to operate a Hoveround in the rain. Brakes get wet, people start crashing into each other, it’s not pretty.
Omnes Omnibus
@Matt: They are made of suede. Don’t you know what water does to suede?
Schlemizel
@raven:
It is good that these assholes are dying off. While we will have to put up with “don’t speak ill of the dead” for a bit in 10 years or so the whole truth will be allowed to escape & people will understand the depth of depravity of the Nixon White House.
? Martin
@c u n d gulag: Well, Gen. Washington didn’t have to figure out how to get 30 million AR-15s through the TSA line. A proper armed rebellion is fucking hard to pull off these days.
Frankensteinbeck
I am put vividly in mind of the Bundy Ranch situation. He got out his guns and defied the government in the name of the poor, abused white man. The militias flocked to him. This was it. This was what they were waiting for. The core of their belief system is that there will be a spark and the oppressed white man will rise up all over the nation in rebellion. The Bundy confrontation was exactly what they have always imagined as that rallying moment.
Nothing happened.
Trollhattan
@srv:
Not Holder, Hodor!
Trollhattan
@raven:
Saw that. All this time I didn’t realize he was “Jeb Stuart” McGruder. Explains a lot and yeah, enjoy the fires, fvcker.
Eric U.
@Schlemizel: I recall that the Million Man March had a ton of publicity for months. I know I don’t travel in the right circles to know if the publicity for this was there, but you can’t just expect even the looniest of loons to drop everything and go to DC on moments notice. And you have to have enough publicity that a lot of people have heard about it. I bet you could actually get a decent crowd for this sort of thing given the right preparation.
Trollhattan
O/T, have had misgivings about DiFi for quite some time, but now I reeeally want her to hang it up.
Belafon
“I hope you got my message that you should not do this.” -God
Roger Moore
@lurker dean:
I really like the riff on the Gadsden Flag with the logo changed to “Don’t laugh at me”. Ha Ha!
srv
@MomSense:
Ssssshhh. Or they might figure out that Bunkerville and Jacksboro ARE THE FEMA CAMPS!
Roger Moore
How long until it’s revealed as a false flag operation designed to make Conservatives look bad?
NonyNony
@Roger Moore:
Pretty sure that one is already on the Twitter. So, like, negative six hours ago.
Belafon
OT: I like this title for that cat that saved it’s boy the other day: Tara the mixed martial arts rescue kitty. Meteor Blades at Daily Kos called her that.
Roger Moore
@Patrick:
The results. As long as they keep winning, democracy is fine.
kindness
@MomSense:
But it will be televised even if Fox has to pull WWII stock footage to do it.
lurker dean
@Roger Moore: that’s awesome!
Temporarily Max McGee (soon enough to be Andy K again)
@Frankensteinbeck:
And there the near entirety of the “movement” remains.
Except for the Oathkeepers…Who probably soured to it once they actually had to interact with their fellow patriots.
driftglass
Live action photos available…
http://driftglass.blogspot.com/2014/05/operation-murrican-spring.html
libarbarian
Whocouldanode?
Quaker in a Basement
“…a crowd that was 9,999,950 people short of their expectations.”
They were all there in spirit, so that does too count, libtards!
catclub
@Omnes Omnibus: Beat me to it.
p.a.
First they ignore you. Then they laugh at you. Then you get the seniors’ special at Denny’s. Then you slink home.
japa21
@Belafon: Tara will be throwing out the first pitch at a minor league game (with the assist of family).
japa21
@Eric U.: Depends on what you call decent. Glenn Beck’s million person whatever, with tons of publicity, in beautiful weather only drew about 60,000.
joeyess
In an attempt to sing the national anthem, hilarity ensued.
Kristin
This cracked me up:
– See more at: http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/operation-american-spring-organizer-worries-obama-might-launch-drone-strike-washington-dc#sthash.sd3l2K8g.9oQestay.dpuf
Who are they kidding?
joeyess
@p.a.: Hahahahahahhahahahhahaaaaaaa
Morzer
@p.a.:
The best way to take back your country is to take back your couch and then BENGHAZI!!!
JDM
Even Condoleezza Rice could have predicted this one.
Belafon
@Kristin: New right wing talking point: Obama fails to create much needed jobs in the nations capital by failing to launch a drone strike against Operation American Spring participants. Cleanup and reconstruction of the Mall would have given work to hundreds.
Patricia Kayden
@Mary G: You should have seen Rachel Maddow’s first segment yesterday when she was talking about the “tens of millions to 30 million” expected by Wingnuts today. She could barely contain herself.
TBaggers must be under some delusion that their craziness is shared by a majority of Americans. Not sure why though since President Obama was easily reelected.
Belafon
@Patricia Kayden: He wasn’t elected. He stole the election by allowing blacks and Latinos to vote. /wingnut
Morzer
@Patricia Kayden:
Well, you have to remember that 100 million dead people voted for Obama….
Mnemosyne
@Frankensteinbeck:
Don’t forget, McVeigh thought that bombing a federal building would lead to the race war predicted in The Turner Diaries. Turned out most Americans were not real big on blowing people up.
Random thought since people are bringing up the past — the fact that the Manson Family was explicitly trying to start a race war (which would, of course, end with Charlie running THE WHOLE WORLD!) always seems to get edited out of that whole fucked-up story.
Patricia Kayden
@Schlemizel: Me too. First I heard about it was on Rachel Maddow’s show last night. I do not read any rightwing blogs/websites or watch Fox News so that may explain it. Everything I know about the rightwing I get from left-leaning blogs like this one or MSNBC. lol
Mnemosyne
@Patricia Kayden:
We had a brief discussion about it in one of the other threads: it used to be pretty common that, when a group of white people was alone, all of a sudden they would break out the racist bullshit that they were just dying to say all the time and they were absolutely convinced that every other white person felt the same way.
As the years have gone by, that’s happened to me less and less because, frankly, it’s not socially acceptable even among white people any more. But the older the crowd of white folks, the more likely it is to happen, I’m sad to say.
(My late Fox News-addicted father used to pull that on me, partly because he knew it bugged me. I finally figured out that if I just rolled my eyes really hard and then changed the subject, he’d knock it off.)
Soonergrunt
The #americanspringexcuses hashtag is hilarious. So is the hijacking of the #operationamericanspring hashtag.
My own personal contribution to #americanspringexcuses “I forgot to charge the Medicare-purchased hoverround, so I can’t make it to the Medicare-purchased handicapped van.”
MomSense
@kindness:
Close, they tweeted pictures of a rally with signs saying “End the War” and “Stand up to Bush”.
HA!
joeyess
Live Free or Dry!!
Patricia Kayden
@bemused: First excuse would be that it was raining up a storm in D.C. last night and this morning (there was a flood watch in effect until Noon). Not sure what else they’ll come up with. They’re actually quite fascinating.
Keith
@Mnemosyne: Ch-Ch-Ch-Cherry Bomb
srv
@Kristin: Trolling Truthers did not take a lot of skill, but trolling these people can be dangerous because you could totally brainfuck yourself and end up in another dimension.
Frankensteinbeck
@Belafon: and @Patricia Kayden:
And thus, voter fraud. They sincerely believe that because they look at Obama and feel a gut level fear and contempt, and because everyone they respect says he’s a terrible despot, that the US must be a barely contained cauldron of revolution. They MUST surround us, because that makes them normal and giving them their way is the same thing as democracy and they’re America and we aren’t. That they’re balanced at the edge of admitting this isn’t true is why they’ve gone into existential panic. Foundations of their belief system are being battered by reality constantly. It’s scary!
boatboy_srq
@Citizen_X: He probably listened to his local pols who (still) insist that the District of Columbia doesn’t have voting representation in Congress because nobody lives there.
@NonyNony: I’m sure they could have found a room or two either outside the Beltway – but then they’d have to use that IslamoFascoSoshulist Metro thing. And it’s hard to cram “10 to 30 million” wingnuts into 10 to 30 hotel rooms: the hoteliers tend to think poorly of that sort of thing.
SatanicPanic
@joeyess: my face is starting to hurt from all the snickering I’ve been doing today
Time Travelin
Can “I’m so fed up with the tyranny I sold my jet ski” go into the rotation of banner quotes?
cthulhu
@NonyNony: I think this says it all about these guys. The statement comes from the head organizer of the Texas contingent and it seems like he showed up in DC, with the expectation of millions of his fellow patriots being there, and didn’t bother booking a room in advance?
joeyess
@SatanicPanic: my sides are hurting from downright guffawing.
Bubblegum Tate
@dubo:
Mighty fine work there.
Patricia Kayden
@Frankensteinbeck: They need to save some of their panic for President Hilary Clinton’s 8 years and whichever Democratic President follows her. With the march forward of same sex marriage and the increasing browning of America, they’re on the losing side of history. Too bad they can’t accept change with grace and Christian love.
Soonergrunt
@Patricia Kayden: Well, you have to be careful with the rain and the mud. Hoverrounds aren’t 100% waterproof, and they’ll short out. Especially the lower end models that Medicare pays for.
japa21
@Patricia Kayden: Interesting that. These are the same people that would complain if the post office was a little late delivering their mail in the middle of a blizzard, but a little rain means the revolution must be delayed.
Iowa Old Lady
They do think the majority agrees with them. After all, everyone they know does.
This is the myth of the silent majority.
Frankensteinbeck
@Patricia Kayden:
And thank goodness, the kleptocrats bet everything on white resentment. It got us to this horrible economic situation, but it also means that if we can get past this culture war crisis, a lot of the policies that sent us downhill the last forty years will be reversed. Or to put it another way, socialism is sounding mighty good to everyone who’s not jacked up on racism right now.
Felinious Wench
This thread is FULL of win. Thank you for a great end to my day.
? Martin
@Kristin: So, they planned for a drone strike, but they didn’t plan on how to get anyone there.
Jacksboro, TX has a population of 4,000. Which is about 15% of what my HOA has. This was probably all the talk down at the only bar in town, so yeah, I can see why he’s shocked that the entire population of Texas (26M) didn’t show up.
joeyess
Saw this over on the twittermaching
<a href="
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satby
I’m having an sinfully fun time retweeting the best LOLs. And sharing on FB just to watch my winger family and friends explode.
MomSense
@joeyess:
Perfect!!
joeyess
eh, fuck it…. Still didn’t get it right
joeyess
@MomSense: I laughed hard at that one….
p.a.
@joeyess: :-)
Calouste
@cthulhu:
I see you have carefully avoided using the word “thinking” in your comment. These folks also carefully avoid “thinking”. Actually, they not as much carefully avoid “thinking”, as that they go around the other block when they feel “thinking” might be approaching in the distance.
MomSense
@joeyess:
So did I! Please go tweet it. That is too good not to share!
AnotherBruce
@Mnemosyne: You can really tell that the logistical planning for tens of millions of people was somewhat lacking, I was wondering how they would pay for 6,000 port-a-pottys.
feebog
@Patricia Kayden:
A hundred bucks says that Rachel leads with this story tonight. Another hundred says she is going to be wearing depends because she will be laughing so hard she will pee herself.
Glidwrith
@Mnemosyne: I had the pleasure on Mother’s Day having my father growl that the Confederate’s Day that South Carolina was celebrating was a part of our heritage. I couldn’t eyeball roll over the phone, but managed to abruptly change the subject and hung up within 10 seconds. I don’t want to believe my father has fallen so far that he was actually attempting to defend that so-called heritage.
joeyess
@MomSense: done…… retweeted, favorited, you name it….
Calouste
@? Martin:
I’d hope a town of 4,000 has more than one bar. On the other hand, it would explain the crazy.
chopper
@? Martin:
with all due respect to Gen. Washington, he didn’t have to deal with his rascal scooter’s battery capacity dropping precipitously in cold weather.
geg6
@Time Travelin:
I agree. That might be my favorite crazy person line of all time. Well, excluding any that include the words “faxing my credenza to John Cole.”
Mart
Pretty sure the Washington Times is still the Moonie Times, dedicated to stopping North Korean commies, even though Sun Myung (Jesus) Moon died a couple years ago. (Did he rise to his father a couple days latter?) How the hell “journalists” accept a paycheck from these freaks has always bugged me. And the always money losing paper being funded by slave labor selling flowers bugs me more.
jonas
@Comrade Dread:
Implicit in this slogan, of course, is the idea that Democrats — particularly blah Democrats — winning elections is on it’s face illegitimate. I bet they don’t have a single grievance that’s not pure fever swamp conspiracy theory (he’s confiscating all our guns; ordering us into FEMA concentration camps; replacing the dollar with the amero; instituting sharia law, etc.)
FormerSwingVoter
Not as hilarious as we’d like to believe. https://twitter.com/BuhByeGOP/status/467362650457124864/photo/1
chopper
@Kristin:
a ‘hot’ drone strike, right?
? Martin
@Mnemosyne:
It still is common. I’m constantly astounded at how here, in upscale OC, as soon as I’m alone with a white guy I’ve never met there’s about a 30% chance that within 60 seconds the other guy will drop ‘nigger’ or ‘wetback’ or some such. It’s honestly gotten to the point that I go out of my way to avoid white men that I don’t know unless my wife is with me, or there’s some person of color around. At first I just sort of weaseled out of it, but after an incident at my barber shop (they avoided serving a black guy ahead of me) I started telling these assholes off and it puts me in a shitty mood for about a week. I’ve ditched almost my entire extended family because of this and I just can’t do it any longer. My black and gay friends (and black and gay family members) are nicer and funnier anyway.
I think most of the men have figured out that women, at least here in CA won’t tolerate it, and thats why you don’t see it often. The circle is closing, and I hope it continues, but it’s far from gone.
Elizabelle
Geezers with Grievances.
On Rascal scooters.
Spare me.
jonas
@Frankensteinbeck:
Precisely, because the vast majority of people in the country recognized Cliven Bundy for what he was: a shriveled, spoiled-ass old racist SOB who thinks he doesn’t have to pay for his running his ranching business.
Bill Arnold
@Quaker in a Basement:
Is this the current record for a march-on-Washington flameout? It’s around 10**5, 5 orders of magnitude off.
MaryRC
@Eric U.: I think that all these people with their rallies and marches and truck-ins hope to emulate Glenn Beck’s rally in 2010 which was relatively successful — from 100,000 to 300,000 attendees depending on whose estimate you believe. But Glenn spent a year organizing that thing with the full support of Fox in publicizing it and tea party groups across the country organizing buses and hotels. Because unless they hear about it on Fox, and someone puts them on a bus and lets them off at their hotel, the base isn’t going to be interested.
And of course Glenn didn’t ask for anything more strenuous from his attendees than to listen to speeches — certainly not to do anything. So there’s that.
NotMax
Suppose it is possible that millions upon millions just got confused by the e-mail to “meat up at the mall” and are wandering around the Hickory Farms store at their nearest retail megaplex.
(misspelling intentional as mockery)
? Martin
@Calouste: Texas has an average of one bar per 9,000 residents. Not a big social drinking state.
Omnes Omnibus
@FormerSwingVoter: Someone just got added to lists at both the FBI and the Secret Service.
beth
I listened to the live stream for a while today and just for your information, you snickering libtards, there are buses full of patriots still driving to DC! And the bikers are coming next week! You’ll be eating your words when they march on the White House and execute their devious plans – because the guy on the radio said he spoke to the organizer and he’s got a very good plan that can’t be divulged just yet!
These people are so delusional. They were interviewing some of the marchers and the marchers were asking “when are the plans going to be divulged?”. They really believe there’s a workable plan for overthrowing the government.
andy
What is it wing nuts like to say? All real Americans were busy working and couldn’t find time for some stupid protest.
Omnes Omnibus
@? Martin: The entire state of Wisconsin gasps in horror.
Scott
@Villago Delenda Est: The retired Col that seems to be the head of this sorry organization should be reminded that he is still subject to the Uniformed Code of Military Justice and all the consequences thereof.
Calouste
@? Martin:
As I said, that explains a lot ;-)
Belgium on the other hand, according to one of my friends who lives there, has an average of one bar per 150 residents and the lowest number of psychiatrists per 100,000 residents in the developed world.
Botsplainer
@Southern Beale:
http://fatoperator.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/Merca.png
Soonergrunt
@Omnes Omnibus: hey, IANAL, but YAAL, so I’m wondering if what beth described would qualify as a conspiracy to commit sedition under federal law?
? Martin
@beth: That’s a good point. OpSec demands secrecy to protect against the drone strikes. I’m guessing the first wave of american spring patriots will come in disguised as commercial charter flights same way they did in Afghanistan in ’80.
Wally Ballou
@joeyess: Dude had to be trolling them, right? I mean, he *had* to be.
Mnemosyne
@? Martin:
30 percent sounds like an improvement, though — I’m guessing that 20 years ago, it would have been more like a 50 percent chance. And, yes, you’re probably right that, at least in this part of So Cal, the racists know that dropping that stuff on most women would not go over well. (Would you like to see pictures of my niece and nephew? Now what were you saying about black people, again?)
Omnes Omnibus
@Soonergrunt: As long as stuff is all talk, it is unlikely that anyone would bother trying to make the case.
ETA: Laws against sedition can easily lead to First Amendment violations.
SatanicPanic
@beth: I often wonder when these people will get tired of their media giving them bad information and their leaders sending them off on wild goose chases. Maybe today’s an indication that only the die-hard fools are still willing to sign up for these protests.
NotMax
May 16, 2014: A Day That Will Live In Ignominy
raven
@Soonergrunt: Catch the 101st jacket in the picture?
SatanicPanic
@Mnemosyne: I am proud to say that the sentence “My MOM is Mexican” has resulted in several dozen instances of furious backpedaling, but it’s been a while since I’ve had to do that so progress is being made. Maybe San Diego is just mellower? Of course, east county is another story.
Trollhattan
@joeyess:
Holy sheepshit, they forgot the lyrics to “Dixie.”
srv
Terry @ ground nihilist:
Now I have to decide between Hitlery and Killary…
This sure put a damper on my day.
Soonergrunt
@Omnes Omnibus: I figured that was the case. But if one guy says “I have a plan to overthrow the government and remove the President” and the other guy says “I’m up for that, what’s the plan?” isn’t that sedition as opposed to one guy saying “I hate the President, he’s a lying sack of shit!” and the other guy saying “Yeah! I agree!”
NotMax
What’s really amusing is that their Secret Plan was to oust Obama, Biden and Boehner (among others).
Which would elevate Senate president pro tempore Patrick Leahy the president.
raven
@Soonergrunt: Not if they be grey dudes.
NotMax
Should read: elevate Senate president pro tempore Patrick Leahy to the presidency.
Just poured first cup of coffee of the day, and stepped on my own punchline. Hate that.
Omnes Omnibus
@Soonergrunt: Generally, conspiracy require the agreement to commit the illegal act plus an overt act in furtherance of the illegal goal on the part of one of the conspirators. In the situation you describe, you don’t have the overt act – yet.
Trollhattan
@? Martin: Isn’t Texas one of those states where the liquor laws are so cumbersome that everybody goes to “private clubs” instead? Seem to recall hearing that from folks who moved there (then came racing back).
Of places I’ve actually been, Utah has/had a LOT of private clubs that will sell you a one-night membership for a few bucks.
Morzer
@NotMax:
You know what your problem is, son?
You are an addict who doesn’t respect his drug.
Now I, being an addict who does respect his drug, am just enjoying my fourth cup of the noblest substance Caffeine Jesus ever ground for the tastebuds of the children of the Lord.
feebog
So, the plan is for 10 to 30 million people to show up over the weekend, but for at least a million to stay on in D.C. until Obama, Biden, Holder, Reid, McConnell and the Boner all resign or are somehow otherwise forced out of office. You know who becomes President when that all happens? Patrick Leahy, President Pro-Tempore of the Senate. I’ll bet another hundred that not one of these morans has figured this out yet.
ETA: see that someone beat me to it, rats.
Berial
@? Martin: If you lived in a state where every dumbass that wants to can carry a gun would YOU want to go to a public place to drink? Better to stay home and drink where the odds are YOU’RE the one doing the drunken shooting instead of the one of the targets a drunken shooter is shooting AT.
Soonergrunt
@Omnes Omnibus: So what would be the overt act? I’m assuming something more than meeting for pizza to talk about it, but less than assembling a bomb.
gogol's wife
@Omnes Omnibus:
As I recall Wisconsin has about one bar per 9 residents.
Not Adding Much to the Community
Nut picking from Freak Repugnant: “False flag, I agree. It was designed to fail from the start for the purpose of demoralizing the Tea Party movement ahead of elections. As if oppression by the IRS isn’t enough.”
Not Adding Much to the Community
“We were wondering the same thing this morning. Nobody heard of it until a day or two ago. The fellow on Savage yesterday just sounded like the stereotype the left has for a Tea Party’er…a retarded, drawling hick.” From the mouths of babes.
NotMax
@Morzer
In weak defense, still half-asleep.
Oh, slip me a slug from that wonderful mug – Java Jive
catclub
@Omnes Omnibus: “Laws against sedition can easily lead to First Amendment violations. ”
Isn’t there some horrible 1917 law that does that, and has not been repealed?
Omnes Omnibus
@Soonergrunt: The overt act could be anything. Reserving a hotel room in DC, ordering camo clothes, buying bomb making supplies, anything that moves the process forward.
janeform
@JDM: Win
catclub
@Not Adding Much to the Community: “It was designed to fail from the start for the purpose of demoralizing the Tea Party movement ahead of elections.”
but they never go the next step ( since they obviously figured this out ahead of time) and make sure to show up and thwart the dusky muslin’s plans.
Omnes Omnibus
@gogol’s wife: That’s just College Ave. Actual data.
Morzer
@NotMax:
And will you slumber when the Day of Caffeine Judgment comes and you must render account of yourself before the terrible, just judge? Save yourself, my son, and give over your slothful ways.
Not Adding Much to the Community
And another. Your friends and neighbors, folks: “Perhaps most people with some smarts realize that the problem is not entirely, or even primarily, in Washington, DC.Most conservatives do realize that the problem is much closer to home, with their idiot neighbors sporting the odinga bumper stickers, or the COEXIST ones, etc.; the spiritually dead dykes, fags, perpetual grievance clowns, dis-en-french-fried minorities, outraged illegal invaders, and other such communists.”
Patricia Kayden
@beth: When you’re White and Right, you can do anything. Don’t you know that yet? Sheesh.
Iowa Old Lady
What must it be like to live inside these people’s heads? You’d bump into reality a dozen times a day and not know why your shin hurt.
Morzer
@Iowa Old Lady:
Lots of echoes and bat droppings.
shelley
Part of the OAS ‘strategy’ was that people were supposed to occupy the area, not just come for a day and then leave. I guess, to keep the pressure on the usurper Obama. Read one posting of some patriot, saying how he’d set up their campsite in rural W.Virginia.
Good job. That’s sure to frighten the White House. Some random guy camping out in the woods, a two hour drive from DC.
Omnes Omnibus
@catclub: The Sedition Act of 1918 was a set of amendments to the Espionage Act of 1917. The Espionage Act is still in effect, but the sedition parts were repealed in the early ’20s.
Someguy
Speaking of shameful demonstrations, did anybody else notice that after SunTrust severed relations with the HGTV-fired Benham (right wing homophobe) brothers, they just reversed course? It’s grotesque… they had a chance to wipe them out of business and then the Holy Buck apparently spoke to the SunTrust brain trust, and they had a change of heart.
I wonder what other banks use these couple of idiots to launder… er, I mean liquidate properties?
Calouste
@Omnes Omnibus:
Interesting numbers. By comparison, the city of Antwerp, Belgium (pop. 512,000) has more bars (2500) than 44 American states and has 320 times as many bars per capita than Virginia.
Morzer
@shelley:
Hey, that guy probably sold his jetski for his country!
Omnes Omnibus
@Calouste: My understanding is that Virginia has a very peculiar legal definition of a bar. There are far more places in VA that you and I would consider to be bars than are recognized in that listing.
J.D. Rhoades
@Patricia Kayden:
They only listen to people just like them, so they think the majority agrees with them.
Omnes Omnibus
@Calouste: More on bars and Wisconsin.
? Martin
@Calouste:
How is that even possible? Even if we assume ⅔ of the population is drinking age, you have 100 potential patrons to support one merchant. Assuming you’re willing to turn over 5% of your income to the bar, and labor was even as high as 50% of your costs, you’d need 40% of the residents as regular patrons. Adding food doesn’t necessarily help. Yes, it makes it easier to get a broader swath of the population, but your operating costs would inevitably go up. Labor is usually no more than 30% of a restaurant’s costs, so now you need 60% of the population being regulars.
jl
Wasn’t there supposed to be a twin rally out at Bundy land in Nevada? Any news on that? No one showed up? Or only one or two, so there was no detectable difference in the number of Bundy guardian nutjobs hanging around harassing the locals?
bemused
@Patricia Kayden:
Fascinating in the same way you drive past a car pileup and try not to look.
Omnes Omnibus
@? Martin: There are towns in Wisconsin with more bars per capita than that. Many of them are resort towns and they rely on tourists rather locals.
LanceThruster
Get a team of anthropologists out there. They might be members of the lost Piraha tribe.
The people do not count and the language does not have words for precise numbers. Despite efforts to teach them, researchers claim they seem incapable of learning numeracy.
Ruckus
@Kristin:
Reality.
In second place is, Themselves.
In third place, Nobody.
Howard Beale IV
@Someguy: If i had to bet, probably BB&T….
Roger Moore
@Iowa Old Lady:
Cramped.
gogol's wife
@Omnes Omnibus:
Very funny. I wonder if DeBruin’s, Jim’s Place, and — what was the one with the year-round Christmas decorations — are still there.
Calouste
@? Martin:
Most bars are pretty small there. One bartender, a bar, a few tables. Maybe 20 seats. Drinking age is 16, and I very much doubt there’s any significant enforcement of that. Houses are smaller, cities and towns are more compact than in America, so if you want to meet with more than three or four people, it makes more sense to go to the pub.
? Martin
@Omnes Omnibus: From that site, I see that Jack Co, TX doesn’t have a single bar in it. Looking at their local business directory, I find it humorous that they have one dentist but two bail bonds.
So I guess out in the oil fields, they thought this was going to be a huge thing.
And holy cow, they have 10 police. That seems excessive for 4,000 people and no bar. We’ve got a quarter million people and only about 45 officers.
gogol's wife
@Omnes Omnibus:
OMG, Jim’s Place has been gentrified.
http://www.yelp.com/biz/jims-place-appleton
I think Cleo’s is the other one I was trying to think of.
? Martin
@Omnes Omnibus: Yeah, I’d expect that for some suitable population. College towns, cities like Vegas that have large adult tourist populations, etc. But you can’t sustain that for a whole country.
Omnes Omnibus
@gogol’s wife: Yeah, the changes to Jim’s Place came as a surprise when I was there for my last reunion. Cleo’s actually burned down in, I think, the ’90s, but reopened next door with equally tacky decor. Pat’s Tap is gone though.
ETA: DeBruin’s doesn’t ring a bell for me.
gogol's wife
@Omnes Omnibus:
I’m older than you are. De Bruin’s was the classic in my day. Across the street from Jim’s. De Bruin’s was the best place for mid-day.
Roger Moore
@? Martin:
You might be able to for a small country with open borders and a reputation for producing the world’s best beer.
Jay C
@? Martin:
Heh. You’ve obviously never been to Belgium. If you had, I’m sure you’d see the advantages of unrestrained drinking. Quickly.
Belgium lies right on the border between the “wine culture” of the European South, and the “beer culture” of the European North. So they split the difference by habitually overindulging in both.
Visually, it reminded me very much of Ohio.
And that is not intended as a positive reference to either Belgium or Ohio….
Besides, with (presumably) that many bartenders, what do they need with shrinks?
Omnes Omnibus
@gogol’s wife: It must have been gone by the time I got there. That’s not something that would slip my mind.
Ruckus
@? Martin:
The idea of a drinking age just might be different in Antwerp than in the US.
I’ve been to some of the bars there, many were more like pubs than what I call bars here. I never saw one with the walls painted flat black, with concrete floors that could be washed out with a hose, that smelled like bleach, till latter in the evening, when it changed to some sickening, sour smell that makes you retch a little bit just thinking about.
cckids
@Omnes Omnibus:
Wasn’t Jose Padilla, among others, imprisoned (for periods ranging from years to forever) for basically this level of “conspiracy”?
Morzer
@Jay C:
Better chocolate, though.
Soonergrunt
@Omnes Omnibus: ahhhh.
Omnes Omnibus
@cckids: Yeah, he was convicted of criminal conspiracy.
Marc
@? Martin: What if they gave a drone strike and nobody came?
Jay C
@Morzer:
Better food in general, I noticed: French quality, German portions. You could do worse…..
Hal
Yeah, Maddow was pretty funny yesterday. She made the point that there were 320 million people in america, including children, so if 30 million were really going, chances are we would all be there. These people are so delusional, it’s funny but scary at the same time.
joel hanes
@SatanicPanic:
My MOM is Mexican
My grand-daughters are “black”
Sure glad I live in the Bay Area, and not in OC — I’ve never had anyone here do the “confidentially, aren’t we all racist at heart” thing up here. I _did_ used to get the stone-face from a certain class of matronly lady when my lovely granddaughters used to help me at the grocery store — the way I figure, it’s convenient whenever the bigots to self-identify so that the rest of us can shun them.
Origuy
@? Martin:
Two US and three state highways going through the only town, connecting Dallas with Lubbock and Wichita Falls. Can you guess what the main source of revenue for the county is?
PaulW
Considering Washington DC is one of the busiest cities in terms of tourism, interstate and international business, as well as a place hopping with school proms and college graduations around this time of year, there’s 1000 other reasons those hotels were booked up for the weekend, bro.
It’s like finding out all the hotels in Orlando are booked up this weekend during NBA season and believing that the Magic are playing in the postseason (hint: IT’S ORLAN – MICKEYTOWN – DO!). One thing don’t correlate to the other…
Sigh.
Mary G
@? Martin: I haven’t heard anything like that in years and years. Of course, we moved to south OC in 1960 from downtown LA. My dad was an minister at St. John’s Episcopal on Adams and Flower, where the congregation was about half black at the time. The vestry of the new church told my parents that we would not have to worry about “those people” down here and my mom replied that in that case, “we quit.” She tried to get her black friends to come to visit for years, but they knew better. So I guess people know I wouldn’t put up with that kind of language, but I don’t overhear it in restaurants, etc, the way I used to. Progress, I guess.
AxelFoley
@SatanicPanic:
Fix’d
PIGL
@Keith: I would deliver you your internetz, but it is a long weekend up here in Canada, so you will have to wait until Tuesday.
Gretchen
@Matt: thanks for that
Wendy
@Elizabelle: HA!! Thats funny!!
Wendy
@Botsplainer: LMAO… Yeah… that is THE reason….lol
BTW… you may want to LOOK up what the ECONOMY actually has been doing since President Obama.. INSTEAD of letting FOX brainwash you…. But I guess its easier to LET fox TELL you what to think than actually learning something on your own….. Sad that we do have so many of YOUR kind out there…..(none thinkers)…..Thankfully not 10 to 30 million of “your kind” out there…LMAO….. But nevertheless sad that we have any amount of people unable to think for themselves… *sigh*….Oh well…
Rambo
But that occupy was a real success….people pooping are cars and raping women….refusing to agree on a leader or hell, even a reason to be there. Fucking dirty hippies. Lol
sue vail
@Botsplainer: hahahaaaaa!
Somethingbrite
Hello America – Hello from Europe
Thanks for the Lulz.
I was encountering these “calls to arms” from the Facebook feeds of groups I wasn’t even aware I followed.
It seems I got unfriended by them when I asked why it would be a good thing to overthrow the first US President in a loooong time who actually spent money on healthcare for the poor.
I was told it was “constitutional” and I wouldn’t understand. …..and then seemingly blocked from further comment and all my previous comments erased.
Not really surprised by either action to be honest, I didn’t see too many groups of militia led by retired US Army officers rushing to overthrow the Bush regime when it spent all that tax money on the single largest state subsidy of private financial institutions in the history of mankind….
louc
@MaryRC: Dunno where you heard those numbers, but at maximum, Beck’s thing drew 50k.
As a DCer, I see a lot of protests. Glen Beck’s was barely a sneeze.
For instance, Jon Stewart’s rally for sanity, OTOH, estimated it would get 40 to 50,000 and it got twice that, at least. And I was there. You could not communicate with people you were meeting because the cell phones were jammed.
In DC you can always tell the really large protests by that yardstick. Then again, Beck’s crowd probably isn’t into cell phones. Nonetheless, it didn’t fill that much space on the mall.
I’m out of town, so sorry I missed this latest entertainment.
louc
@MaryRC: Dunno where you heard those numbers, but at maximum, Beck’s thing drew 50k.
As a DCer, I see a lot of protests. Glen Beck’s was barely a sneeze.
For instance, Jon Stewart’s rally for sanity, OTOH, estimated it would get 40 to 50,000 and it got twice that, at least. And I was there. You could not communicate with people you were meeting because the cell phones were jammed.
In DC you can always tell the really large protests by that yardstick. Then again, Beck’s crowd probably isn’t into cell phones. Nonetheless, it didn’t fill that much space on the mall.
I’m out of town, so sorry I missed this latest entertainment.
CanadaGoose
I worked on some of the really big anti-war demos of the late sixties, early seventies.
Getting TEN THOUSAND people to DC is major work. A hundred thousand requires a lot of organization and people to do the organizing. The biggest I ever attended was April 24, 1971 where there were at least 200,000 and est went as high as 500,000.
That was at the very height of antiwar sentiment in the US and it still took a massive number of people, lots of money, and many months to bring it off.
Predictions of #s can be fairly closely correlated to how many people HEAR about the action in time to plan to attend. When you’re dealing with a relatively small percentage of the population, you’re not going to get many without a prolonged period of publicity. [Also, they’re stupid.]
emma
The surrounding motels were no doubt occupied by “pro-family” republicans and their mistresses’