Today is the day that Operation American Spring, Restoring the Constitution of The United States of America commences. This is a proposal by teabaggin’ wingnuts to march on Washington DC, depose Obama, all the Democrats, and those establishment Republicans who don’t follow Tea Party extremism with adequate zeal, and also repeal all taxes and declare America a Christian nation.
They are utterly bonkers.
They aren’t managing expectations very well, either. Here’s their proposal:
Phase 1 – Field millions, as many as ten million, patriots who will assemble in a peaceful, non-violent, physically unarmed (Spiritually/Constitutionally armed), display of unswerving loyalty to the US Constitution and against the incumbent government leadership in Washington D.C., with the mission to replace with law abiding leadership. Go full-bore, no looking back, steadfast in the mission.
Phase 2 – One million or more of the assembled 10 million must be prepared to stay in D.C. as long as it takes to see Obama, Biden, Reid, McConnell, Boehner, Pelosi, and Attorney General Holder removed from office.
Consistent with the US Constitution, as required, the U.S. Congress will take appropriate action, execute appropriate legislation, deal with vacancies, or U.S. States will appoint replacements for positions vacated consistent with established constitutional requirements.
Phase 3 – Those with the principles of a West, Cruz, Dr. Ben Carson, Lee, DeMint, Paul, Gov Walker, Sessions, Gowdy, Jordan, should comprise a tribunal and assume positions of authority to convene investigations, recommend appropriate charges against politicians and government employees to the new U.S. Attorney General appointed by the new President.
So, supposedly, ten million “patriots” are supposed to arrive in DC today. One million are expected to camp in the Capitol for an indefinite period of time. The Moonie Times is expecting more.
The group expects between 10 million and 30 million similarly thinking Americans to meet them in the capital on Friday for a rally that’s being billed as a sort of “Arab Spring” for Americans.
The logic behind these huge numbers is a little weird. They don’t actually have verified numbers, instead, it goes like this. Only 3% of the American population participated in the Revolutionary War. They were True Patriots™. We are True Patriots™ too, so 3% of the American population will actively join in our cause. 3% of 310 million is about 10 million, more or less, so we should expect about 10 million people to join us in our assault on the Washington establishment.
I don’t know where the 30 million comes from. Unbridled optimism, perhaps, or maybe just poor math skills.
I may have to turn on the television news today, to catch sight of the tens of millions of lunatics swarming the Mall. I wonder whether, if the numbers don’t come anywhere near their expectations, we’ll see the same kinds of rationalizations made that end-of-the-world cults make when their doomsday dates pass without a cataclysm?
I don’t think the kooks are helping.
I wonder if Moe Tucker will be there.
It is pouring in DC and will be for much of the day. I wonder how many “patriots” will brave the rain.
since it’s raining like crazy in DC, I wonder, will teabaggers have more fortitude than hippies at Woodstock or us atheists who went to the DC gathering a few years ago?
I wonder if those kooks fully appreciate how Orwellian their twitter name sounds.
Mmmmm, its raining. Surely its a sign from god that god is not on their side! *chortle*
Marx would approve of their revolutionary zeal. I hope they stick it to the man.
The first time someone litters or jaywalks, I hope Capitol Police swoop in and arrests the lot.
I doubt it would take more than one cell to hold them all.
To be fair, nothing that they have proposed in this screed seems to be unconstitutional, psychotically optimistic and delusional for sure, but not necessarily illegal.
Reading the assumptions was entertaining. I really liked:
Umm your posting on the net – next time think about how you word something so you don’t sound like little kids. If you are trying to get millions of people to be in a specific place at a specific time the last thing you want is secrecy so don’t mention it as an assumption as it makes no sense…
Not that any of it makes sense mind you but I almost spit out my hot chocolate when I read that line. O_o
I mean, fuck holder, boehner, and turtle man, but holy shit these guys are up their own asses.
I don’t think they know how many 1,000,000 is.
It feels like a bit from Get Smart.
“We have 30 million patriots! Would you believe 10 million? What about three guys with tri-corn hats and a HoverRound?”
@11, agreed. Numeracy doesn’t seem to be a teabagger strength.
My wife’s had CNN on for the past hour and they’ve had NOTHING about Obama being frog-marched out of the White House. Just fires in California and Donald Sterling. It’s a lieberal media conspiracy, I tell you!
I suppose I could switch over to Faux News but I value my few remaining brain cells too much.
Are they planning to pay for all those people to travel to DC? Along with bad math skills, poor geography seems a common trait.
Where are they going to stay? I’m not sure DC has enough hotel rooms and couches for 10 million people. Also, I doubt the White House veggie garden can feed them all, particularly this early in the season. Add “logistics” to the near-infinite list of their incompetencies.
Yeah, frog. And what about toilets?
The second amendment is really a thinly veiled “right of revolution” (at least by some readings) but that route means you are willing to die with your entrails in your hands.
I think the political system, as broken as it is, works much better. With the added bonus of not risking a Reign of Terror.
Shockingly, since 1969 it’s been legal to advocate for the violent overthrow of the government. The Supremes ruled on this in Brandenburg v. Ohio. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brandenburg_v._Ohio)
The litmus test to determine whether your rantings are 1st amendment protected free speech are whether they’re intentional and likely to incite imminent violence. Fail one of the criteria: not intentional, not imminent, or non-violent, and rant away.
Imminence is the usual dodge.
If a million-man-march-on-DC is what it takes to get the DoNothing Congress to actually do appropriate stuff, then, what could be bad?
Maybe even the TeaBaggers are fed up with Congress just saying “NO” to anything the POTUS proposes, (and repeatedly being overridden by the SCOTUS for the inappropriate legislation) and equally frustrated with the Congress being just a logjam.
But to go so loonytunes, as to think they’ll get 10 million people there, and eject so many officials, to form their own looneytune version of demokrassy is absurd.
Popcorn ready, what channel is covering the parade of loonytunes?
Hey one of them met with the Occupy Wallstreet people I’m sure they’ve got the logistics worked out. I’d think they are going to sleep in tents in the “Mall”. Grab a cup of coffee and you can use a restaurant bathroom. If they really end up with a million+ people I’m sure the cops & local military will help solve any problems. :D
Here is some shit from that page that is rather…um…informative…
1. Note how they start off by immediately letting people know “yeah, black people are totally allowed! WE AREN’T RACISTS I SWEAR!”.
2. Note the total lack of specifics regarding what they are actually opposed to.
Here’s from their page on impeaching Obama:
Man, they REALLY like Joe Arpaio. . Aside from that, still impressively non-specific. They think the government needs to be toppled because Obama isn’t warmongering enough, oh noes Cap and Trade, and some conspiracy about Obama deliberately making the economy suck or some shit. It is impressive because it is level of blind, inchoate crankery and right-wing rage that makes even regular teabaggers look reasonable. This is Teabag TimeCube.
It says something when my first thought about the sheer skepticism of the logistics overweighs everything else. Never mind whether 10 million people actually dislike the government enough to want to participate in a violent uprising that risks their ‘life, fortune and sacred honor’. Or that many of those wouldn’t have worked with an armed group larger than a deer hunting party, while various government staff have plans to deal with problems in Washington where everyone knows what his or her part of the job is to make sure the USA continues with a functioning* government even in troubles.
But it takes effort to figure out where you’re going to house and feed (and dig latrines) for 10 million people. Not to mention get them from wherever they are to DC.
If they can’t figure out the logistics of their take over attempt, how the heck do they expect to run a country?
* Well, as functioning as it usually is.
Maybe they should camp in Anacostia. It’s traditional.
If they want to rid DC of tyrants then why do they want to put people like Cruz in there? Why didn’t they do anything about W? Given their list of “crimes” they accuse President Obama of committing a similar list for W would be 10 times longer.
Okay, here is where these idiotic scumfuckers hid their typical talking points, with standard teabagger paranoia and bigotry:\
See the “Lone Ranger approach” I put in bold? That is the entire paragraph, all the information they provide about that particular “method” of ending Obama’s reign of terror. I wonder what they could possibly be referring to?
(Yes, these people are bringing up assassination as a possible alternative to protesting. Mealy-mouthed, paranoid bastards.)
Just drove by the Mall 40 minutes ago. I didn’t see any million wingnuts. No more than the usual 5 or 10 wingnuts wondering around. Oh sorry they were homeless people.
But these wing nuts do have an issue with innumeracy – (numeric illiteracy). 10 people != one million.
1. Conspiracy and intent to defraud; RE: General Motors, Chrysler Corporation, and the American Auto industry, UAW Autoworkers unions.
I don’t think this plank in their platform is going to generate a lot of support in the Midwest.
This is going to seriously drain the man-power from the Bundyville seige.
Someone should translate the Ayatollah Khomeini’s pre-revolutionary speeches for this guy, read them to him, and then (after he starts foaming at the mouth with joy) tell him who wrote them.
The resultant internal stresses might just completely fracture him in two. Or six. Or 6.023 x 10^23.
hgmann: it’s not shocking at all that advocating the violent overthrow of the US government is legal- it certainly should be! Can we, who live in a nation founded on the violent overthrow of the legitimate government, in good conscience make it illegal to discuss applying the lessons of history to the modern day?
In principle, I wouldn’t be opposed to a revolution in the US. In practice, I certainly am- revolutions are expensive, violent, and brutal. They have a nasty habit of eating their own young and creating a government far worse than the one they overthrew.
Wasn’t what happens after this the plot of Dark Knight Rises?
This is a rally that’s being billed as a sort of “Arab Spring” for Americans. It sounds more like the “Beer Hall Putsch” for Americans.
Correction: “The Rained Out Wet Tea-baggin’ Fantasy Beer Hall Putsch” for Real Muricans.
Maybe while they’re there, they will take a moment to levitate the
PentagonFrench embassy.The likelihood that these people do not smoke marijuana should count as a major reason to legalize it, for public mental health reasons.
You can watch the exciting live stream here:
http://beforeitsnews.com/alternative/2014/05/oas-live-stream-operation-american-spring-live-stream-right-here-right-now-2957332.html
It was supposed to start at 11 EST but is not postponed to noon.
Interestingly, considering today is the big day, their press release page has nothing less than a week old and their “OAS in the news” page is a dead link. How many times I wonder does it take calling out your masses of supporters and nobody showing up except for your buddies, to realize that you are not the knife point of a mass movement and just a handful of cranks that no one is actually listening to. Even the nutball politicians don’t seemed to have bothered with the photo op.
One look at their ad column on the right tells you everything you need to know about this group.
Oh my god! You mean they’re not there? 30 million people can’t just vanish! What did you do, Obama? Where are the bodies?
thanks
Wow, David Cook, those comments below the article do not disappoint! They’re scary as hell but at the same time pitiable yet laughable. It’s a smorgasbord of vacuous violent fantasy.
How much is it going to take before we see a modern treason case against any of these numbskulls? They’re constantly pushing the line.
Of course, they didn’t vanish. They are in the FEMA concentration camps?
Don’t you pay attention to the news. The real news like Alex Jones and Jim Garrow.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ViCqrZTWuI#t=270
Christ, what planet does this guy live on? He sounds exactly like Mark Levin without the whiny voice. He starts by talking calmly and rationally. By the end of the video he’s practically screaming.
I look forward to conspiratorial excuses for why their plans failed. I bet Obama sent Men In Black to every True Americans house, setting them up right outside their doorways. Also: The Men In Black were also Black Panthers. From Kenya. The Marxistist region of it.
Live cams on the mall show almost no one there. I have to hand it to these guys, their camouflage is excellent!
Not long.
Wherever they is hate speech like with the rightwing nuts, there is hate violence. They don’t get arrested for what they say, but what they do.
The last one was Cross/Miller who randomly shot three Jews in Overland Park, Kansas who all turned out to be xians.
2/3’s of all terrorist attacks and plots since 9/11 have involved rightwingnuts and christofascists. The two terrorist attacks nearest my house involved some guy getting into a shootout with the police while on his way to bomb an environmental group and the local xians firebombing the local mosque.
In a metro area of about 6 million, you’d expect an influx of 10-30 million to have a noticeable effect on transport. I didn’t have too much trouble getting to work on metro this morning despite the rain and problems on the Yellow line.
If this messes up my evening commute, someone’s going to pay.
Obviously Obama used his weather control satellites to make it rain today and disrupt the movement.
So who will be left to guard the Bundy ranch?
can 10 million people even fit into DC? Areal geometry is also there weak suit.
I am also gobsmacked by the intense irony of deriding Obama’s leadership, for not enacting laws, with no requirement for the legislature to get involved; while simultaneously comparing him to H!tler as a tyrant. I guess they can write without being able to read…. or they can read one sentence at a time without ever connecting them together into a paragraph.
^^ * …
theretheir *…Heh…the stream went active for about 60 seconds, sideways, with one guy screaming about the rape of the constitution then went offline.
Live feed has gone on briefly three times so far. Image is sideways. Sound of wind. People milling around. Sparse crowd. Old guy begins by saying “don’t consider this a flop”. On air. Off air. Sad, so far anyway. And one screaming veteran.
Looked at the live feed. Looks like they are down by the Wash. Monument. The link Dave Cook gives features lots of close in camera work so you cannot see how pathetically small the “crowd” is. Looks like under 200 people, total. Hey, what’s a factor of 50000 between friends. Ohhh, that’s so cute!
twas brillig, 49:
DC’s area is about 160square km, so 10 million people would be about 63,000 per square km. According to Wikipedia, the most densely populated city is Manila, at about 43,000 per square km.
So it’d be a tight fit.
Of course, they’re expecting everyone to meet at Arlington cemetary and then march across the river to the mall. That’s a considerably smaller area (and a very long parade).
Guy on the live feed says, “It only takes one snowflake to make an avalanche.” Met with “Yes sir” and “Amen”.
Errr. OK.
At whose cost? They have families you know. They must eat, sleep, shit, fuck etc… On the lawns?
This would require outside support. As in: supporting these “true patriots” to do their duty for others. Represent their cause. Stand in. Wait for instructions. Be there for the common weal. Stand guard for the commonwealth…. Oh wait, I am starting to sound like a socialist.
Well, no, it only takes one snowflake to start an avalanche. If there aren’t a whole bunch of other snowflakes already there, it won’t be much of an avalanche.
Also, another approach to “will 10 million people fit in Washington?”
10 million people, in a classroom squish, would take up about a 2.5km-on-a-side square area (0.6 m^2/person).
I don’t think I’d want to be in that area, because 10 million people would also statistically mean a SHEDLOAD of heart attacks, strokes, crush injuries, fights, and probably several straight-up deaths even without the issues of crowd control (800/100k yearly means a couple per day per 100k, 10 million is 100 100k, that’s 200+ deaths to be expected in a pop of 10 million in a day).
Also, bathrooms. Ew.
And unarmed? Yeah, that’s likely.
Symbols, banners and flags aside from American: yellow Don’t tread on me, Connecticut Militia, A wooden cross, Benghazi…. stream is down again.
You know, if we could get 30 million of these bastards to assemble on the mall…and then build a big high wall around them, we’d have a much nicer country. Build it high enough, and with the wind from the right direction, you wouldn’t even notice the stench.
“I don’t think the kooks are helping.”
Overton Window. Good cop/bad cop. If you won’t deal with reasonable people, you might have to deal with these.
It could work. Though the first reaction would just be a universal tighten down.
They’re starting to march now yelling “Obama Impeach!” Stream down. Up. down. Up. down and I’m outa here too.
Clearly I’m not up on my nutbag luminaries, because while I know who “Cruz, … Lee, DeMint, Paul, [and the loathsome] Gov Walker” are, the only “Wests” who come to mind are Cornell, and Lindy, and it would be pretty funny if the wingnuts held their coup in order to put either of them in charge.
a_ray_in_dilbert_space @ 44;
I wonder if that will be one of the excuses they will coem up with for the laughable turnout – we were there, but we were super sneaky and you didn’t see us, so we win and therefore god…
jrobie, 62
Allen West, former Congressman and current Faux News commentator.
Here is a sampling of his quotes. One taste:
“Take your message of equality of achievement. … You can take it to Europe, you can take it to the bottom of the sea, you can take it to the North Pole, but get the hell out of the United States of America.”
What a Maroon, el papa ateo
Thanks. He sounds lovely.
I observed elsewhere
Not so much American Spring as American Slinky – and the most fun you get out of a Slinky is pushing it downstairs …
When I went into the service this is what I swore:
I, (my name), do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; and that I will obey the orders of the President of the United States and the orders of the officers appointed over me, according to regulations and the Uniform Code of Military Justice. So help me God.”
Okay, I’m not in uniform any longer, but I think I am still able to identify a domestic enemy when I see one. And that enemy is clearly Operation American Spring. Enemy is not too strong a word, either.
One other thing. That so help me God bit was long before I became an atheist. I’m not sure how I’d deal with that now. Probably mumble something like “So help me Hitchens.”
a_ray_in_dilbert_space (#53)
Hey, at least it’s slightly closer to reality than their belief the world is only 6000 years old.
Ten million! It’s a good thing I didn’t try to go to the Smithsonian today.
I wish them a pleasant day of milling around, being persecuted by the weather, enjoying their True Patriotism, and not shooting anybody. I wonder if the local Trotskyists and Bob Avakianites will swing by and try to sell newspapers to them?
http://dcist.com/2014/05/live_stream_operation_american_spri.php The live stream of the 30 or so people.
What a Marroon@54:
Oh, he’s much worse than that. He was forcibly retired from the Army to avoid serving 11 years for possible war crimes. An out and out piece of shit.
What a Marroon@64 that is…
Setting aside that fact that these clowns are marching to replace “only” the ones that are *not* currently trying to dismantle the fed, stonewall the process, and repeal everything from child care to taxes… I can see the political cartoon now, “So, you have your constituents, I have mine!”, as a caption, under a picture with an elephant, with the koch brothers on either side, each with a bag of tens of millions of dollars, facing the supposed “crowd” of a 10 million.
@robertfoster #67, when faced with an oath these days I conclude with “I so swear.” I see it as taking responsibility myself to live up to my own given word. If you need a disembodied spirit’s help to accomplish your oath, you shouldn’t be swearing it. Disembodied spirits are notoriously unreliable, after all, and you wouldn’t want to find yourself unable to do what you swore to just because your ally flaked out.
nich @71, 72:
Arr, matey!
But you repeat yourself! (Seriously, though, thanks for the pertinent information.)
Ok, so I foolishly delved in to try and figure out what this guy and his ten friends and 10 million imaginary ones’ beef is. I still can’t really figure it out at a glance. I think it’s just the usual wingnut litany but what interesting is the guy is quite convinced he has good legal footing.
The list of grievances is amusing: “The Administration refuses to assent to laws of the most wholesome and necessary for the public good” – I’m guessing state gay marriage bans?; several about immigration being unfettered; unfettered and inappropriate taxation features several times; reducing military spending is bad apparently; there’s about three which are directly and indirectly about the UN.
The usual sorts of stuff.
Gold is this one: “29 This Administration has excited domestic insurrection among us, seeking to divide us against ourselves in support of their political ends”
If that’s not reason to get a minority to march on the capital and overthrow the government, I don’t know what is!
Then there’s the actual articles of impeachment, which are similar but I’m not versed enough to say if any of this stuff actually happened (I am fairly confident none of it amounts to ‘high crimes and misdemeanors’)
-Obama rearranged departments and appointed czars to them (I dunno. I think that’s been going on for a while)
– the feds aren’t lording it over the states enough in certain areas, specifically immigrants and gay marriage (immigrants and gay marriage come up a lot!)
-executive orders are un constitutional (although I think I heard Obama has done an unusual amount of them. and he was soft on welfare recipients in the bargain )
-It’s not a party without Benghazi!
– contraception in the affordable heath care act violates freedom of religious expression and the first amendment.
– restricting chaplains in the military is the same
-something about ‘Politically correct’ rules of engagement imposed on soldiers.
Some of them are valid complaints. Not impeachable of course, but still. I’d be fascinated to know if some of them are even true.
A delightful mishmash.
Their lack of understanding of American history would be amusing if I weren’t actually beginning to be afraid of them. They think the Founding Fathers would be shooting by now? Nonsense, the Founding Fathers very obviously wanted the rich people in the colonies to have representation in the government that was taxing them. They’d likely look at our plutocracy and the only question they’d ask is “why are all these black people, women, and non-land owners voting”?
A few of them actually were forward thinking enough that they’d be greatly pleased to see our expanded suffrage and the end of slavery (I’m thinking of Adams), but probably not most, and none of the Southerners.
robertfoster@67:
When I joined up (1990) I was a Unitarian Universalist and a deist. And I just left out the last sentence.
Muz @76:
He’s made far fewer than W. did. From The American Presidency Project, Obama, in five years, has issued 168 executive orders. In just George W’s first term, he issued 173. Their hero, Reagan, issued 381 during his 8 years; Nixon 346; Eisenhower 484. Since WWII, the number of executive orders per term has been dropping fairly steadily. The only anomalies are Kennedy and the first Bush, both of which are unusually low in number. Well, Ford’s are really low, but he wasn’t in that long.
Gussnarp, Remember, Madison and Jefferson were both southerners, and their attitude toward slavery was at least nuanced. And by the end of his life Washington had started to see the contradictions of the plantation system.
Brother Og on EOs: “Well, Ford’s are really low, but he wasn’t in that long.”
And he wasn’t awake for most of it.
So? Did they win? Do we have a new government? No? How unexpected and disappointing.
arids:
Neither was Reagan.
And W was on vacation almost half his term.
Brother Og: “And W was on vacation almost half his term.”
If only he’d been on vacation the other half as well.
arids:
Wouldn’t have mattered. Cheney was still pulling all the strings. On behalf of the same assholes funding groups like the one in the OP.
“when faced with an oath these days I conclude with “I so swear.” [period]”
Last time I read the Constitution, I was puzzled by the Constitution’s use of the phrase “…swear or affirm…” I then found out that “swearing” relies on a deity, while “affirming” does not. Like “take my Word for it…” where Word does not require a deity to enforce it, just dependance on one’s reputation to self-enforce it.
Does the Const still allow “affirmation” or is it now only “swearing [to God]”?
I always thought of W as more of a finger puppet. I always thought if you looked closely, you could see Cheney’s hand rammed up Bush’s arse making his lips moved when he talked.
you I find it kind funny and illustrative of how out of touch with the reality the right wing nutbars are that they fear the UN so much.
I do not what UN they are seeing because the one I see is so close to ineffectual as to take long and careful examination to see much in the way of positive effects. Especially when you consider our support in any of their operations is often required.
If their UN were even remotely real and was capable of any real power the world would already be a very different place.
What we see often is the UN peace keepers looking out from the strong points while violent chaos sweeps by or they bring in some epidemic that kills hundreds of the people they were sent to help.
The UN is like trying to tie your shoes by committee while not deciding what kind of shoe.
They seem to fair in analysis to be just a little bit above an NGO or similar organization in effectiveness
uncle frogy
Well, they would be. At them. Think Whiskey Rebellion.
@a_ray_in_dilbert_space #79 –
Yeah, I thought about throwing those guys in there as exemptions on the Southern front, but honestly, while they probably would have supported the end of slavery once it came around, I’ve no idea how they’d have felt about women voting, and I’m inclined to think they’d actively oppose poor people voting.
@a_ray_in_dilbert_space #79 –
And isn’t it funny how one would hardly accuse Virginia of not really being Southern, many of her early statesmen weren’t much like those of other Southern states?
a_ray_in_dilbert_space@85:
Naw, W was more of a marionette. Every now and again the strings would get tangled and Cheney would freak out because W was going off-script.
@78
Thanks Og. Exactly the sort of fact check I’m after (not that I’d blame anyone for skipping wading through their crap and watching TV or gardening or anything really).
Y’now, maybe they have not thought this through.
There are only abut 97,000 hotel rooms in the DC area. If we assume any viable hotel has about 60% occupancy, that leaves these guys with 40,000 rooms. If they get 10 million participants, that’s about 250 protesters per room.
@twas brilig #84:
Affirmation continues to be just fine. Of course, depending on what one horse town you happen to be in and what idiot is administering and oath, you might find yourself having to sue for that right.
@anteprepro #21:
“Dully-elected” is the best description of Joe Arpaio I’ve ever read.
kamkat @2:
“It is pouring in DC and will be for much of the day. I wonder how many “patriots” will brave the rain.”
Funny, my initial thought was “I hope it rains like a sonofabitch in DC”.
During one of the periods of time when the live stream was up, a sign could be seen advising attendees that if they heard that the protest/government-coup (or whatever) had been moved to the Bundy ranch, they should ignore that.
The protest has not been moved to the Bundy Ranch. Okay. So?
As is often the case I get the impression these dumbasses don’t have a clue how the US system works. They seem to think members of Congress can take a simple vote and instantly be rid of Obama. In fact even if the House of Representatives voted to impeach Obama it would be weeks, or even months, before the Senate, which actually holds the impeachment trial, would hold the trial, and they could decide to acquit Obama.
Coverage from The Maddow Blog:
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/its-very-dismal-turnout
Scroll down at the link above to view great video segment.
Coverage on Think Progress:
http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2014/05/16/3438826/american-spring/
Lots of nice photos at the link.
I think right-wingers are likely to claim that fear of drone strikes kept the millions of their supporters away. Either that, or they are all at the Bundy ranch.
Raining? RAINING??
Oh, what it was doing this morning was not mere raining. I had to commute in during the worst of it (via Suitland/Anacostia – No sign of campers! :) and not only was the rush hour traffic slight and insignificant, due to the omnipresent road flooding, but visibility was down so much we were all driving at least 10 MPH *under* the speed limit, which Just Isn’t Done around here.
Coverage on Right Wing Watch includes photos, video, and a head count.
http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/guarantee-10-million-operation-american-spring-protesters-just-under-10-million
The revolution will not be televised –on Fox.
Well, a little further north of DC, there’s been a huge influx of people from outside the area. Hotels and motels in the Baltimore and beyond are booked solid. Police seem to be preparing for a huge crowd and there’s evidence they’re prepared to reroute traffic and even close off some streets!
Of course the Preakness is tomorrow.
@twas brilig #84:
It’s still fine, and will probably remain that way more or less indefinitely, if only because some religious groups require affirming that they’ll do something rather than swearing an oath. The constitution was probably written with them in mind, at least as much as atheists.
Yeah, this country went into the shitter with G W Bush and his evil twin. He stole the election, allowed 9/11, and allowed New Orleans to get flooded. We had a coup, a terrorist attack and a natural disaster, and badly fucked up on all of them. We got our rights trampled and our patriotism questioned, and did our damnedest to divide the counrty by violence. And that’s just the internal damage—we trashed-talked the rest of the world while trashing our own ideals, reputation and credit. But these teanuts bought everything W was selling, and sold the country for a mess.
They worship the Constitution, but they haven’t really read it. The also do not realize that the heirs of the framers of the Constitution are in the White House and Capitol Building right now. Obama and the congress hold the offices held by the framers, and are in the same educated class (well, the educated ones), and are politicians. The teanuts are the spiritual heirs of the Revolutionary War “patriots” who signed up for three months in the army, fucked up, then pissed off home when they got bored.
And what would make the Constitution so damned great in the first place? A bunch of wig-wearing rich guys in short pants and buckle shoes who didn’t even own automatic weapons? Making laws about treaties and business and government, and not even putting guns in until the second amendment? Over-educated, atheistic toffs, and politicians to boot. Nothing about God, either. Fuck that.
They need to add ‘Time’ to the end of the title. That way it would be Texans for Operation American Spring Time.
TOAST.
Which is pretty much what the whole idea has been from the beginning.
Buncha traitorous cowards.
The Constitution doesn’t say a damned word about the people being allowed to overthrow the government, as a right, I mean. It does say, in the body—not in an amendment—that the full force of the government will be brought on your insurrecty ass. I say this is an insurrection, and an elderly park ranger should be sent to crush it.
Menyambal:
PZ asks:
It’s not. It’s Declaration-of-Independence-al. What these nuts fail to realize (well, that covers a lot of ground) is that the Declaration of Independence is rhetoric, not a binding document. Even if it had been in 1776, it was superseded by the Articles of Confederation. Then they were superseded by the current Constitution.
Not that they know any of this—you could quote the preamble to them and they’d probably say Stalin wrote it.
It’s kind of ironic that they were planning to meet at Arlington Cemetery. While they’re there they might reflect on how the US Government dealt with past insurrections.
They probably planned to hunt their own food, and sleep in tents, being.. most likely “survival experts”, sort of like the total bloody idiots on that “Naked and Stupid”, reality TV show, you know… lol
CJO wrote:
bastionofsass wrote:
Well, that’s perfect. Fox can show images of Preakness and claim it’s Operation American Spring, because it’s certainly not like they’ve ever done something like this in the past. “Journalistic integrity” is for suckers.
Thanks for reminding me of this, it’s a great record!
American Spring (1972)
They’re not waging war on the US yet, though the Bundy people have sort of tried.
Thread won.
Really? I only know the opposite story: somewhere in a gospel, Jesus says (paraphrasing) “you’ve heard it say that you shouldn’t swear by God and other very holy things [because if you fail to uphold that oath for whatever reason, it turns into retroactive blasphemy]. But I say unto you: Don’t swear at all. Let your yes be a yes and your no a no.” Consequently, some of the, uh, smaller denominations* refuse to swear, and “affirm” is the weasel word that allows them to be included.
* The example that comes to mind are Jehovahs’ Witnesses, but they’re of course much younger.
It was 10 million if you count all their sockpuppets I guess.
the hallmark of denialists of every stripe is their inability to actually document what it is that is negatively affecting them so.
it’s like the anti-SSM crowd. They whoop and holler and talk about the destruction of marriage as an institution… but can NEVER define how letting two people of the same sex marry actually affects THEIR marriage.
It’s amazing this kind of psychological denialism actually gets the traction it does. I can only think it relates to authoritarianism.
makes me wonder…
how DID they mange the Civil Rights march at the Mall in the 60s?
there were over 250 THOUSAND people who attended that march.
the logistics must have been a complete nightmare.
there are over twice as many people living in the US as there were in 1963, but I’m sure that we will NEVER EVER see another march on DC like that one.
never.