The additional open thread: What light from yonder tunnel breaks?

Obama Conspiracy Theories closed to new articles on January 20, 2017, as as the very presidential Barack Obama left office, and was replaced by someone completely different. The open thread is a place to leave comments and continue the discussion.

If you have not had an approved comment here before, your comment will first go into moderation for subsequent review and approval.

About Dr. Conspiracy

I'm not a real doctor, but I have a master's degree.
This entry was posted in Open Mike and tagged . Bookmark the permalink.

125 Responses to The additional open thread: What light from yonder tunnel breaks?

  1. I keep wondering if there is some particular website where the president gets his conspiracy theories, this latest one about the owner of CrowdStrike being Ukrainian.

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/why-trump-asked-ukraines-president-about-crowdstrike/2019/10/17/e61d54c2-f12b-11e9-bb7e-d2026ee0c199_story.html

  2. gorefan says:

    Back in 2012, you posted an article on a book by Teddy Roosevelt that had a chapter on dual nationality

    http://www.obamaconspiracy.org/2012/10/teddy-roosevelt-on-dual-nationality/

    Roosevelt knew Chester Arthur had dual citizenship which was supposedly a secret until Leo Donofrio found it in 2008.

    But there was another point that appears to have been overlooked at the time. Roosevelt writes of the case of P.A. Lelong Jr. who was born in New Orleans in 1881 to an alien (French national) father, who only naturalized in 1911.

    Roosevelt writes this about Lelong Jr., “He is eligible to the Presidency of the United States.”

  3. President Arthur’s father’s British citizenship seems to be one of the worst kept secrets in history. 😆

  4. [Rambo] Ike showed up in the comments on my latest article. He is still trying to claim Lupin’s translation of “parens” in de Vattel is wrong.

    https://rcradioblog.wordpress.com/2019/09/17/for-the-thousandth-time-anyone-born-on-us-soil-under-the-jurisdiction-of-the-united-states-is-a-natural-born-citizen-period/

  5. I can’t read the article because the WaPo’s nag window asking me to turn of Ad Blocker blocks the window where I could turn off Ad Blocker. Screw them.

    Dr. Conspiracy:
    I keep wondering if there is some particular website where the president gets his conspiracy theories, this latest one about the owner of CrowdStrike being Ukrainian.

  6. gorefan says:

    Mike Zullo discussing Montgomery. A little bit on the birth certificate.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1704&v=U37dgND8LE0

  7. Mike Zullo in panic mode. They succeeded with the “Monica Lewinsky” fiasco and thought that they would get away with it again. Somebody, or somebodies, were prepared this time and planned accordingly. My guess, UN.
    gorefan: Mike Zullo discussing Montgomery. A little bit on the birth certificate.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1704&v=U37dgND8LE0

  8. Sharon Rondeau investigative journalist? 😆 😆 😆 😆

    I love her couch.

  9. I listened to as much as I could stomach. I wish someone had asked Zullo how much investigation they did into Dennis Montgomery’s background before the MCSO started working with him and throwing money his way. I think the Aram Roston’s Playboy article on Montgomery being a con man was published in 2010.

    gorefan:
    Mike Zullo discussing Montgomery.A little bit on the birth certificate.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1704&v=U37dgND8LE0

  10. Curious image found on the web. 😯

  11. Rickey says:

    While no one was paying attention, back in February of this year Christopher Earl Strunk filed another mostly incomprehensible lawsuit in the Northern District of New York against multiple defendants (Strunk v. The State of New York, et al., 1:19-CV-202). Among other things, Strunk’s 56-page Complaint alleges that there was a conspiracy to enact New York’s Reproductive Health Act.

    1. He claimed the DNC pushed for expedited passage of the law out of fear that Ruth Bader Ginsburg would die and be replaced by a pro-life justice.

    2. He claimed that Planned Parenthood wanted to pass the law because it stood to profit from “the sale of mature fetal body parts and fluids” and that the defendants were using “crypto currency” to launder funds offshore.

    3. He also accused the defendants of aiding and abetting an “ongoing illegal alien invasion” and for some reason he invoked the name of Benito Mussolini.

    4. He argued that the addition of fluoride to the water supply “diminishes user IQ” and causes residents to be dependent on government.

    5. He complained that “permissive use of Microwave communications 4G / 5G poses a health and safety risk . . . in that the electromagnetic frequencies in our body coexist in a complex manner and interact with each other nonstop” and that “mobile phones, Wi-Fi routers, etc., create fatigue, sleep problems and imbalance to the body.” He referred to this as “massive wireless densification.”

    6. He also claimed the the government has been “flooding towns and cities with inmates from psychiatric facilities.”

    The Court’s decision dismissing the case includes a review of Strunk’s many prior failures to file a successful lawsuit, and concludes that “Strunk’s complaint—which juxtaposes some kind of general harm to New York residents from fluoridated water and microwave radiation with a passing attempt to vindicate fetal rights under the umbrella of a federal civil conspiracy statute—appears to be both factually and legally frivolous.”

  12. Leave it to Strunkie to come up with a big pile of craziness. We know New York has it’s share of loons. Besides Strunk there are Christopher Laity, and that crazy sov cit John Darash/Vidurek. Strunk probably leads the pack however.

    As I recall Strunk had a teenage son back around 2012 when he was filing his ballot challenge nonsense. I hope the kid was able to get away.

    Rickey: While no one was paying attention, back in February of this year Christopher Earl Strunk filed another mostly incomprehensible lawsuit in the Northern District of New York against multiple defendants (Strunk v. The State of New York, et al., 1:19-CV-202). Among other things, Strunk’s 56-page Complaint alleges that there was a conspiracy to enact New York’s Reproductive Health Act.

  13. The Hawaii Department of Health Obama FAQ link has gone bad. Here it is at Wayback:

    http://web.archive.org/web/20190124041115/https://health.hawaii.gov/vitalrecords/faq-obama/

  14. Rickey says:

    Reality Check: Leave it to Strunkie to come up with a big pile of craziness. We know New York has it’s share of loons. Besides Strunk there are Christopher Laity, and that crazy sov cit John Darash/Vidurek. Strunk probably leads the pack however.

    As I recall Strunk had a teenage son back around 2012 when he was filing his ballot challenge nonsense. I hope the kid was able to get away.

    One thing that Strunk has in common with Cody Robert Judy is that neither ever learned a thing from their respective legal failures.

  15. Older versions of this site had Good, Bad, Ugly links to sites with birther content. Many of the links have gone bad, and the feature was removed from the site some time ago. I decided to put that content on a page (linked under the Features menu) for historical reference. Here is the direct link:

    https://www.obamaconspiracy.org/the-good-the-bad-and-the-ugly/

  16. gorefan says:

    For anyone still interested here is another 1959 Hawaiian birth certificate.

    https://curioustanuki.files.wordpress.com/2019/02/picture1-1.png

    And the website:

    https://tanuki2016.com/2018/10/04/my-myouji/

  17. Joe Arpaio is running for sheriff of Maricopa County again. (Old news)

  18. Jerry Sheridan, Joe’s former deputy, is also running as a Republican. I suspect he will be favored over Joe to win the primary.

    Dr. Conspiracy:
    Joe Arpaio is running for sheriff of Maricopa County again. (Old news)

  19. Yes folks, your favorite birther Joe Arpaio is writing a book, including material on the birth certificate investigation:

    https://www.fhtimes.com/news/local_news/arpaio-announces-new-book-deal/article_63a3cb20-25b0-11ea-8e86-031383169858.html

    Co-author David Thomas Roberts wrote:

    The details behind the stories that made Sheriff Joe famous, such as the tent city jail and the Obama birth certificate controversy, promise to make this a page-turner no matter your political ideologies. A book could be written on its own about the politically-charged contempt of court misdemeanor and the subsequent presidential pardon by his friend, President Donald Trump.

    H/t to Brian Reilly.

  20. That should be a real page turner. 😆

    I have never heard of the publisher:

    Defiance Press is a Texas-based independent, conservative-leaning book publisher of fiction, political, business and non-fiction titles through various imprints.

    How much would anyone care to bet there is nothing new on the birth certificate investigation and it is just Zullo’s recycled poop?

    Dr. Conspiracy: Yes folks, your favorite birther Joe Arpaio is writing a book, including material on the birth certificate investigation:

  21. I am bringing back RC Radio for a brief run. I scheduled a show Monday evening at 9 PM ET.
    https://www.blogtalkradio.com/rcr/2020/01/21/reality-check-radio–the-impeachment-trial-of-donald-trump

  22. This is such big news that Rondeau has devoted 3 long articles to it. Zullo says he waiting for the right time and the right group to release his super secret evidence. He is afraid if he releases it now the evil Obots will rip it to shreds.

    gorefan:
    Zullo and Gallups are fighting over ownership of birthers.

    https://www.thepostemail.com/2020/02/18/missing-from-obama-birth-certificate-chapter-mike-zullo/

  23. Montgomery Blair Sibley in the news in a 2nd Amendment vs 1st Amendment lawsuit.

    https://www.the-leader.com/news/20200123/second-amendment-reargument-petition-to-be-made

  24. I am still impressed that back in the day Doc C used to crank out an article a day or more on this blog. They were always well researched and well written. I cannot overestimate what an effort that was. I hope Doc and Mrs. C. are doing well and enjoying life. Thanks again for keeping the blog open. I refer to it often.

  25. Thanks, Richard.

    I spent a lot of time, but it was worth it.

    Reality Check:
    I am still impressed that back in the day Doc C used to crank out an article a day or more on this blog. They were always well researched and well written. I cannot overestimate what an effort that was. I hope Doc and Mrs. C. are doing well and enjoying life. Thanks again for keeping the blog open. I refer to it often.

  26. I missed this story from last Summer about high-level talks in Washington on Obama’s birth certificate.

    https://www.thepostemail.com/2019/06/03/gallups-high-level-meetings-taking-place-in-washington-on-obama-birth-certificate/

  27. Northland10 says:

    Reality Check:
    I am still impressed that back in the day Doc C used to crank out an article a day or more on this blog. They were always well researched and well written. I cannot overestimate what an effort that was. I hope Doc and Mrs. C. are doing well and enjoying life. Thanks again for keeping the blog open. I refer to it often.

    Yeah, that. I also come back to refer to things. I also have kept the comment thread on my newsreader to catch various comments.

    Dr. Conspiracy:
    I missed this story from last Summer about high-level talks in Washington on Obama’s birth certificate.

    https://www.thepostemail.com/2019/06/03/gallups-high-level-meetings-taking-place-in-washington-on-obama-birth-certificate/

    Too bad about the Gallups v Zullo divorce. They were sooooo close to “any day now.”

  28. Rickey says:

    Bither Wayne Allyn Root has been spanked for hawking alkaline silver as a cure for the coronavirus.

    https://www.mediamatters.org/coronavirus-covid-19/new-york-ag-calls-newsmaxs-wayne-allyn-root-cease-and-desist-making-misleading

    Stay safe, everyone!

  29. Taitz wins appeal in 9th Circuit in Ostella v Taitz

    http://www.metnews.com/articles/2020/taitz041320.htm

  30. The Fogbow is holding virtual meetups weekly on Zoom. Check w/foggy for connection details.

  31. I loved your video background tonight.

    Dr. Conspiracy:
    The Fogbow is holding virtual meetups weekly on Zoom. Check w/foggy for connection details.

  32. John Woodman has published his “The Final Forensic Analysis of Obama’s Birth Certificate” at his website,

    ObamaBirthBook

  33. John M. Woodman says:

    Thanks for mentioning this.

    I’ve changed the title to, “The Final Word on Barack Obama’s Birth Certificate.”

    Part 1 is up. Still working on Part 2.

  34. Rickey says:

    I haven’t been to Orly’s website in ages, but a brief look reveals that she is now touting hydroxychloroquine as a cure for Covid-19.

  35. Yes, that’s because her hero Trump mentioned it. Science and facts be damned.

    I notice Trump is no longer pushing this treatment. I guess Orly hasn’t gotten the word.

    Rickey:
    I haven’t been to Orly’s website in ages, but a brief look reveals that she is now touting hydroxychloroquine as a cure for Covid-19.

  36. Do you folks remember Karl Deninger? He was one of the self proclaimed Birther experts who came out with a video “proving” Obama’s long form birth certificate was a forgery.

    I found him on Twitter. He is a raving lunatic.

    https://twitter.com/tickerguy

  37. I’m getting 504 Gateway Timeouts

    John M. Woodman:
    Thanks for mentioning this.

    I’ve changed the title to, “The Final Word on Barack Obama’s Birth Certificate.”

    Part 1 is up. Still working on Part 2.

  38. I have turned off Gravatar user avatars for the site for security reasons. Only commenters with accounts that uploaded an avatar will show. If you’re interested in uploading one, let me know.

  39. Northland10 says:

    Dr. Conspiracy:
    I have turned off Gravatar user avatars for the site for security reasons. Only commenters with accounts that uploaded an avatar will show. If you’re interested in uploading one, let me know.

    Oh No!!!!! It does make sense though.

    ETA, mine is still around because of magic. 😉

  40. I have updated the site Resources page to include links to John Woodman’s FInal Word on Barack Obama’s Birth Certificate series.

    http://www.obamaconspiracy.org/resources/

  41. gorefan: Roosevelt knew Chester Arthur had dual citizenship which was supposedly a secret until Leo Donofrio found it in 2008.

    I don’t think I ever mentioned on this site that I made a public domain audiobook of A. P. Hinman’s contemporary work about Arthur’s eligibility: How a British Subject became President of the United States.

    https://librivox.org/how-a-british-subject-became-president-of-the-united-states-by-arthur-p-hinman/

  42. Performance on the site has been an ongoing issue since I was forced to change web hosts a few years back. It’s a lot worse on the admin side than the user side, but even users not logged in get 6 second response accessing a page on a fast internet connection.

    Today I started trying to unravel the problem and I found that simply removing the well regarded caching plugin actually sped up things a little. Then I installed a new plugin called Comet Cache, and the improvement if you hit a previously visited page is stunning. I don’t know how much improvement logged in users get, as most commenters are logged in, but when not logged in I’m seeing pages fetched in a second.

    What surprised me was to look at the cache itself, the pages that are cached. In just a few minutes, all over the site there are pages being accessed, stuff from 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2014. What is somewhat scary is that it appears that there are hacking attempts, for example someone trying to access the login script from a non-existent directory, admin001 (and a dozen other fictional directories).

    In any case, I use defensive plugins against attacks, and my password is very long and very random. Even I don’t know what it is.

  43. Here’s a flash from the past I found on Twitter:

  44. I had not appreciated how deeply Donald Trump was into birtherism in 2012. I have decided to add some content on that to the blog, under the Feature menu:

    Donald Trump’s Birther Tweets

  45. I’ve increased the font size on articles to be more in line with websites like the Post and the Times.

  46. I don’t think I have ever posted this link before, but it goes to proto-Dr. Conspiracy writing on my personal blog:

    https://www.blogordie.com/category/politics/ocd/

    OCD refers to the term I used “obama citizen denial.”

    Most of my early writing on this topic was a forum named Political Crossfire, which has been reconstituted without the older material. The Wayback Machine doesn’t follow the forum threads. Here’s a taste of their content, but not anything I wrote:

    http://web.archive.org/web/20101130121458/http://politicalcrossfire.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=133994

  47. gorefan says:

    Case in Utah where citizenship, Wong Kim Ark are prominent.

    Could make it’s way to Supreme Court as the ruling is in conflict with previous court rulings on American Samoa US nationals.

    https://casetext.com/case/fitisemanu-v-united-states

  48. I always agreed with Arizona TEA Party birther Jeff Lichter that Donald Trump was a major factor in the popularity of birtherism. But I noticed today that a Public Policy Polling result in early February of 2011 said that 51% of Republicans thought Obama was born in Kenya. That is exactly the same number making a similar response in a YouGov survey in December of 2017.

    https://www.newsweek.com/trump-birther-obama-poll-republicans-kenya-744195
    https://www.politico.com/story/2011/02/51-of-gop-voters-obama-foreign-049554

  49. Happy Birthday, President Obama!

  50. I was unable to find any link to Einer Elhauge’s paper arguing that Ted Cruz was not eligible to run for president, so I include it here:

    https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2748863

  51. ScottRS says:

    Y’all will be shocked, shocked I say, to learn that some hack from the 124th best law school ever says that Kamala Harris’ eligibility to be president “…[it] depends.” Worth noting, too, that the same hack wrote a similarly florid treatise on how “Ted” Cruz was perfectly eligible.

    https://www.newsweek.com/some-questions-kamala-harris-about-eligibility-opinion-1524483

    But “Ted” Cruz is just hunky dory:

    https://www.nationalreview.com/2016/01/ted-cruz-natural-born-citizenship-eligibility-president/

  52. ScottRS: Y’all will be shocked, shocked I say, to learn that some hack from the 124th best law school ever says that Kamala Harris’ eligibility to be president

    Yes the Harris birthers have arrived. President Trump even mentioned the Newsweek article in a press briefing today. I have comments posted on the story, and our old friend David Farrar showed up.

  53. Farrar showed up in the comments on Eugene Volokh’s article at Reason.com too.

    Dr. Conspiracy: Yes the Harris birthers have arrived. President Trump even mentioned the Newsweek article in a press briefing today. I have comments posted on the story, and our old friend David Farrar showed up.

  54. Prof. John Eastman Quote of the day:

    Every four years, as the presidential campaigns start kicking into high gear for the Iowa caucuses and early primaries in New Hampshire, South Carolina, and beyond, some partisans begin feeling desperate about their candidate’s prospects. We then see a flurry of half-truths, distortions of the historical record, and downright silly claims. The latest charge against Senator Ted Cruz falls into that latter category.

    The charge, first pushed by Donald Trump, is that because Senator Cruz was born in Canada, he is not a natural-born citizen and therefore ineligible for the office of president.

    Senator Ted Cruz Is Eligible to Be President

  55. y_p_w says:

    I thought that I might check in since it’s been a while. I thought maybe someone would have brought this up and birthers don’t disappoint.

    In the years of monitoring birtherism I learned more about certified birth certificates than anyone really needs to know. There have been so many fights over who can or can’t obtain a certified copy. There are at least two states (Ohio and Washington – possibly more) where anyone can obtain an unrestricted certified birth certificate copy with enough information. I’ve seen one person (on the Post & Email) claim to have obtained a copy of Elanor Darragh’s birth certificate from Delaware, and not just the ancient certified copy that Ted Cruz’s campaign scanned and released to Breitbart. It was on fairly modern banknote paper.

    But that brings us to Kamala Harris and her birth certificate. I’ve noted before that California stopped allowing anyone to order an unrestricted copy of birth certificates after someone used one for someone else to establish an identity. They still allow anyone off the street to obtain a certified copy, but without an authorized relationship to the named person, only an “informational” copy (with an overlay that it’s not valid to establish identity) can be obtained. I’ve seen several example images of California vital records of that type, including of Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes’s child, Prince Albert’s (of Monaco) child, Michael Jackson’s death certificate, Jahi McMath’s death certificate, and Richard Nixon’s court ordered birth certificate (filed at age 29).

    If anyone is interested, an informational copy of Kamala Harris’s birth certificate can be ordered from the Alameda County Clerk, and optionally ordered from the California Department of Public Health. Not that it would change the crazies claiming that there’s a two US citizen parent requirement to be a natural born citizen but it’s going to be easier to obtain one than it was in Hawaii.

    Also – I saw something that said that California’s state-issued certified vital record copies no longer get an embossed seal as of 2013. Not sure what they do now, as I ordered my kid’s birth certificates from the state in 2011. I would think that they would at least have one of the seals required by the State Department for passport issuance – maybe a hologram seal? The copies I got had some of the weakest seals I’ve ever seen. They were barely visible although I was still able to order a passport. I have a copy from the county that’s extremely detailed and even broke through the paper.

    http://www.avss.ucsb.edu/MANUALS/Handbook.pdf
    “Effective November 1, 2013, CDPH-VR discontinued embossing certified copies of birth, death, fetal death and marriage records.”

  56. Yes, California is one on sevel “open records states.” The “:Authorized Copy” us the only one good for a passport.

    To get a authorized copy you have to swear that you are authorized and have your application notarized. You must provide ID to the notary, or if you are personally known to the notary and bring someone else with ID who will confirm who you are, or if you bring two people with ID who will confirm that they know you.

  57. I’ve written an article, Who was the first birther? at Quora.

    https://www.quora.com/Who-was-the-first-birther/answer/Kevin-Davidson-9

  58. y_p_w says:

    Dr. Conspiracy:
    Dr. Conspiracy August 15, 2020 at 5:34 pm  (Quote) #
    Yes, California is one on sevel “open records states.” The “:Authorized Copy” us the only one good for a passport.

    To get a authorized copy you have to swear that you are authorized and have your application notarized. You must provide ID to the notary, or if you are personally known to the notary and bring someone else with ID who will confirm who you are, or if you bring two people with ID who will confirm that they know you.

    Just as someone who has done this, there are a few different ways to get this. An application submitted in person doesn’t require a notarized application to receive an “authorized” copy of a vital record. I’ve gone in person to order copies of our marriage license and my child’s birth certificate, and each time a clerk would check my ID and write down the number on the form, as well as check my attestation of being an authorized requestor.

    It is required to get a copy through the mail. The copies I got for our child from the California Dept of Public Health could only be ordered remotely as they don’t have a “public desk”. I was just kind of curious and ordered them anyways just to see how it was different from the county’s version. I spent too much time on birther stuff so birth certificates fascinated me. I had to get the application notarized, which isn’t great in California since the maximum notary fee is $10, where pretty much every notary charges $10 unless it’s attached to another purpose (I had a loan officer notarize our loan documents for free).

    It’s certainly not like Hawaii (or other states) where one can just make a photocopy of an ID (or perhaps a scan in some states with online applications) and submit it with the application.

    VitalChek verifies authorized status in some weird way. They claim they use some sort of “online identity verification” although I can’t find out what it is without giving them my credit card information first. But their service fee is more than a $10 notary fee.

  59. Rickey says:

    Newsweek has apologized for the piece, rather disingenuously claiming that they had no idea that racists would seize upon it.

    https://www.newsweek.com/some-questions-kamala-harris-about-eligibility-opinion-1524483

  60. y_p_w says:

    There are at least partial copies of Kamala Harris’s birth certificate circulating online. Not sure why, but many have certain parts blacked out even though those would normally be considered public information. I don’t see any marking that say “informational copy”, but most of these center on the information and that could be on a larger sheet. Some versions I’ve seen (like Jon Hunstman Jr. or Suri Cruise) seem to have the “legend” printed right into the security paper or maybe placed by the same software that prints out the birth certificate info, but the copies I’ve seen of Jahi McMath’s Alameda County death certificate have the message on a separate rubber stamp.

    Here’s Huntsman’s birth certificate:

    https://imgur.com/4wC4Z

    I’ve seen copies of Michael Jackson’s birth certificate, and they had stuff that was redacted. But it was clearly confidential information like a Social Security number. Not sure why some names of public officials were redacted.

  61. y_p_w says:

    OK. Found one pretty good complete copy of Kamala Harris’s birth certificate from the Bay Area News Group. It’s linked in articles from the East Bay Times and San Jose Mercury News.

    https://www.scribd.com/document/472773880/Kamala-Harris-birth-certificate-is-clear-she-is-eligible-for-VP-position

    All the signatures were mostly blacked out although it’s possible to sort of make out what they look like. It was also amended (second sheet) where her middle name was corrected to “Devi” from “Iyer”. If there’s an embossed seal it’s not terribly visible on the scan. I’ve got one vital record for a family member from Alameda County, and the seal is sharp, although it also tore a little through the paper. Both pages are rubber stamped as being informational copies. Each banknote sheet has a serial number and barcode, and they’re consecutive numbers.

  62. Former Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach advised those indicated in the “We Build the Wall” scam.

    https://www.kansascity.com/news/politics-government/article245106375.html

  63. Kobach has not been indicted yet. Kobach served as general legal counsel. Apparently he gave crappy advice.

    Dr. Conspiracy:
    Former Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach indicated in the “We Build the Wall” scam.

    https://www.kansascity.com/news/politics-government/article245106375.html

  64. y_p_w says:

    Reality Check: https://www.kansascity.com/news/politics-government/article245106375.html

    To be fair, Dr. C did say “indicated”, as in he was pointed out as their general counsel.

  65. Yes, I misread that as “indicted”. The “a” is silent. 😆

    y_p_w: To be fair, Dr. C did say “indicated”, as in he was pointed out as their general counsel.

  66. We were both correct. 😉

  67. joyeagle3 says:

    WWG1WGA! 🙂

  68. I ran across this piece in the Washington Post from 2016, titled “Finally. Someone who thinks like me.” It’s the profile of a birther who had a forced stay in a hospital for psychiatric reasons. She got out and found her place, at a Trump rally.

  69. Reality Check:
    Kobach has not been indicted yet. Kobach served as general legal counsel. Apparently he gave crappy advice.

    Fixed.

  70. Robert C. Laity files Harris birther lawsuit in DC:

    https://1drv.ms/b/s!Aq2lAjHK_grOho1J-O4nTtFieqX5mA?e=6AIUQx

  71. Rickey says:

    This strange. Back in 2016 someone questioned what Obama’s birth certificate would have said if he was born in a vehicle on the way to a hospital.. I seem to recall that some birther theorized that his mother flew back from Kenya in order to give birth in Hawaii but gave birth before arriving. She then supposedly drove him to the hospital and claimed that he had been born enroute. I emailed Hawaii DOH and asked how they would handle that because I couldn’t find anything on the DOH website. I never received a reply and I forgot about it. Today, nearly four years later, they responded! The answer clarifies that they would not have listed the hospital as his place of birth.

    Date: Sep 14, 2020 10:17 PM

    Aloha Richard,

    I spoke with the Registration Supervisor and he advised that they could list it as “En Route to hospital name”, the location they gave birth, or the facility name.

    Best,

    Jamie

    Dept. of Health, Office of Health Status Monitoring
    1250 Punchbowl Street, Room 123
    Honolulu, Hawaii 96813

  72. Rickey says:

    I see that Laity still doesn’t comprehend what treason is.

  73. Northland10 says:

    Rickey:
    I see that Laity still doesn’t comprehend what treason is.

    His comprehension is lacking on a great deal of things.

  74. gorefan says:

    Oral arguments before the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals the case of Fitisemanu v. United States 20-4017

    https://www.ca10.uscourts.gov/oralargument/search/recent

    Discussion of Wong Kim Ark and birthright citizenship for people of American Samoa.

  75. He also does not comprehend that the president is not subject to the articles of the UCMJ.

    Northland10: His comprehension is lacking on a great deal of things.

  76. y_p_w says:

    Rickey:
    This strange. Back in 2016 someone questioned what Obama’s birth certificate would have said if he was born in a vehicle on the way to a hospital.. I seem to recall that some birther theorized that his mother flew back from Kenya in order to give birth in Hawaii but gave birth before arriving. She then supposedly drove him to the hospital and claimed that he had been born enroute. I emailed Hawaii DOH and asked how they would handle that because I couldn’t find anything on the DOH website. I never received a reply and I forgot about it. Today, nearly four years later, they responded! The answer clarifies that they would not have listed the hospital as his place of birth.

    Date: Sep 14, 2020 10:17 PM

    Aloha Richard,

    I spoke with the Registration Supervisor and he advised that they could list it as “En Route to hospital name”, the location they gave birth, or the facility name.

    Best,

    Jamie

    Dept. of Health, Office of Health Status Monitoring
    1250 Punchbowl Street, Room 123
    Honolulu, Hawaii 96813

    I read about a case of a couple that were at sea off the coast of Florida. They planned to get back in time for birth but a storm prevented it and the mother gave birth. Not sure exactly where it was, but the article included a copy of the birth certificate that said the birth was “at sea”. I’m not sure it was specific enough to indicate that the child was born in Florida and US territorial waters since it didn’t specify the exact location.

  77. Dave B. says:

    I had a birther on Quora come up with a list of candidates whose natural-born status had been challenged, and it included this guy, who has his own paragraph on Wikipedia:

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural-born-citizen_clause#Christopher_Schürmann

    “Christopher Schürmann (born in New York City) entered the Labor primaries during the 1896 presidential election. His eligibility was questioned in a New York Tribune article, because he was born to parents of German nationality. It was stated that “various Attorney-Generals [sic] of the United States have expressed the opinion that a child born in this country of alien parents, who have not been naturalized, is, by the fact of birth, a native-born citizen entitled to all rights and privileges as such.” But due to a lack of any statute on the subject, Schürmann’s eligibility was “at best an open question, and one which should have made [his] nomination under any circumstances an impossibility”, because questions concerning his eligibility could have been raised after the election.[118]”

    Now that’s really kind of funny. Funny ha-ha, more than funny weird. “Christopher Schürmann” is a fictional character in this satirical work by George Lynde Catlin:
    https://books.google.com/books?id=zSai4aibemkC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false

    It’s about a fictional 1896 presidential campaign between the Nationalist candidate Charles Francis Adams and Labor candidate Schürmann. Adams won. Pretty interesting book, and kind of timely.

  78. Dave B.: I had a birther on Quora come up with a list of candidates whose natural-born status had been challenged,

    Two years before the decision in US v. Wong.

  79. There is a myth widely held by birthers and their opponents alike, that Donald Trump gets credit for the widespread belief in birtherism. But the fact is that polls from the middle of 2009 on into 2017 show birther beliefs among Republicans fairly steady at around 50% within a margin of error and depending on how the question is phrased. What Donald Trump did was to focus attention on himself and align himself with the already massive Republican birther faction, not convince anybody with his innuendo.

    See my article here:

    https://www.quora.com/q/dyjszvhimzlkzsom/Donald-Trump-and-the-Birthers

  80. Dave B. says:

    Dr. Conspiracy: Two years before the decision in US v. Wong.

    The title page of the book gives a publication date of 1888, and there’s an introductory letter dated June 14, 1925. It’s just so obviously and wildly fictitious, yet…I found this other reference to it:

    https://naturalborncitizen.wordpress.com/2011/03/08/new-york-tribune-1896-those-born-of-non-citizen-parents-may-not-be-eligible-for-potus/

    How Leo wrapped it up:

    “You think Obama wasn’t aware of the Presidential campaign of 1896? Anyone who answers that question in the affirmative has no respect for Obama’s intelligence.

    by Leo Donofrio, Esq. (…with another big hat tip to the research team)”

    What a buffoon.

  81. YouTube started playing a video after something else I watched today, and it was Barack Obama at the White House Correspondents Association dinner. I hadn’t seen it before, and it was so entertaining that I decided to watch it. Wow. Towards the end there is a video depicting Obama going to the Washington DC DMV to get a driver’s license, and yes, they asked him for his birth certificate. Obama pulls out of his pocket what looks like the long form birth certificate.

    Obama shows birth certificate

  82. ScottRS says:

    Dennis Montgomery has somehow shown up in a story about a fictional supercomputer (didn’t Klayman say he was “near death” about 15 years ago?):

    https://www.rawstory.com/2020/11/trump-world-clings-to-conspiracy-theory-by-from-hoax-artist-that-secret-supercomputer-changed-votes/

  83. ScottRS:
    Dennis Montgomery has somehow shown up in a story about a fictional supercomputer (didn’t Klayman say he was “near death” about 15 years ago?)

    And here:

    Infamous ‘Hoax’ Artist Behind Trumpworld’s New Voter Fraud Claim

  84. Richard Gallagher says:

    While following the numerous failed lawsuits filed by the Trump campaign, I’ve been feeling a profound sense of deja vu, as if we are looking at Birtherism Redux. So many empty promises to produce evidence of election fraud, and so much reliance on hearsay evidence from witnesses of dubious character. Any day now!

    The latest theory being floated is that Governor Brian Kemp of Georgia has been bribed to throw his state’s electoral votes to Biden. Which is ironic, given that Kemp once flirted with birtherism.

  85. I feel the same way.

    Richard Gallagher: While following the numerous failed lawsuits filed by the Trump campaign, I’ve been feeling a profound sense of deja vu,

  86. I thought about some of the similarities to Birther lawsuits:

    – Complete lack of understanding of basic concepts of law like standing, jurisdiction, and particularized injury
    – Belief in wild conspiracy theories.
    – Promotion of themselves and others as “experts” without any vetting.
    – Belief that courts will be willing to take drastic measures to subvert the will of the majority of the voters based on their perverted view of the law.
    – Belief that if something is filed in court that somehow makes it legitimate.
    – Any day now

    Dr. Conspiracy:
    I feel the same way.

  87. gorefan says:

    Reality Check: Belief that if something is filed in court that somehow makes it legitimate.

    And the use of sworn affidavits.

  88. Rickey says:

    Affidavits that are mostly hearsay about hearsay.

  89. Steve says:

    Reality Check:
    I thought about some of the similarities to Birther lawsuits:

    – Complete lack of understanding of basic concepts of law like standing, jurisdiction, and particularized injury
    – Belief in wild conspiracy theories.
    – Promotion of themselves and others as “experts” without any vetting.
    – Belief that courts will be willing to take drastic measures to subvert the will of the majority of the voters based on their perverted view of the law.
    – Belief that if something is filed in court that somehow makes it legitimate.
    – Any day now

    And the belief they’ll eventually find “one honest judge.”

  90. Rickey says:

    The Texas lawsuit, which probably will be dismissed tomorrow, reads like a birther lawsuit. Lack of standing, lack of justiciability, lack of an injury in fact, and throw in laches and the political question doctrine for good measure.

  91. Rickey says:

    The Texas lawsuit is bringing out some crazies. The latest is an amicus brief filed by a lawyer in Nevada representing the “New California State” and “New Nevada State.” That has a sovereign citizen ring to it.

  92. Mike Dunford read those and said they were actually better written than some of the crapola that Sidney Powell and Linn Wood filed.

    Rickey:
    The Texas lawsuit is bringing out some crazies. The latest is an amicus brief filed by a lawyer in Nevada representing the “New California State” and “New Nevada State.” That has a sovereign citizen ring to it.

  93. Thrifty says:

    The slew of allegations of fraud has me feeling nostalgic for the days of birtherism. I hopped over to Orly Taitz’s blog where she quotes some weird article about how Congress could throw the presidency over to Trump during the vote count on January 6th. She seems to think that all that has to happen is a single member of the House has to raise a hand to object, and that somehow instantly leads to a vote for president by the House of Representatives. I tried to leave a comment pointing out:

    1) The objection has to be in writing.
    2) The objection has to be signed by a House member and a Senate member.
    3) There must be a vote to affirm the objection passed by majority in both the House and the Senate.
    4) The House will be majority Democrat as of January 3rd (I think 222 Democrats).
    5) Voting to affirm the objection is politically toxic and likely would get very little support even from Republicans.
    6) Even if an objection was miraculously affirmed, that’s just a vote to affirm on one state. Every state’s vote count will have to be objected separately. The election results weren’t nearly close enough that Biden would lose sufficient votes to fall under 270 from any single state that he won.

    This all has me a little excited. I wish this site could be revived for the election conspiracy theories. Or that there would be one like it.

  94. I wrote an article on the January 6th counting of the electoral vote on my blog, https://rcradioblog.wordpress.com/2020/12/16/et-tu-michael/

    A running meme with the Birthers was that at the vote count joint session in January 2009 then Vice President Dick Cheney failed to call for objections when he presided. Of course there were no objections to be heard. I think Cheney did say something like “without objection” once and moved on. This became a big deal for the Birthers. They claimed the botched procedure somehow voided the election and made Obama ineligible. Of course they accused Cheney of being in on the dark conspiracy to make Obama President.

    Thrifty: The slew of allegations of fraud has me feeling nostalgic for the days of birtherism. I hopped over to Orly Taitz’s blog where she quotes some weird article about how Congress could throw the presidency over to Trump during the vote count on January 6th.

  95. Thrifty says:

    Here is my prediction for the next 4 to 8 years (maybe a few more — Biden’s age makes it conceivable that VP Harris could get the presidency).

    On January 6th, Congress counts the votes. There might be an objection. A Representative or two might submit one but I honestly can’t predict if a Senator will join. If an objection does come up, it goes nowhere and Congress confirm’s Biden’s victory.

    On January 20th, Biden is formally inaugurated and become President of the United States.

    After that, things play out a lot like it did with the Birthers during the Obama years. Fringe conspiracy groups will rage against the system and call Biden illegitimate. They will file numerous frivolous lawsuits that go nowhere. They will keep searching for the “one honest judge” who somehow brings the entire supposed conspiracy crashing down. They spend years believing “any day now” and that a victory will not only kick Biden out of office, but will reinstall Trump AND nullify everything Biden has done.

    If Biden dies in office (a macabre possibility due to Biden’s age) and Kamala Harris becomes president, the target of course moves to her. Then I guess the hope becomes that the “one honest judge” will install Trump and reset everything that Biden AND Harris did.

    Oh wait, also, here is something that will be unique to the conspiracy theorists during the Biden administration. During the vote count, some Representatives are sure to raise a vocal objection. Mike Pence, presiding over this, will rightfully rule these as improper (since objections need to be in writing and signed by a Representative and a Senator). The narrative will then become that objections were raised but not heard because Pence is corrupt. Just because Pence and the Sinister Cabal are corrupt, not because the objection itself was against the established rules. I’ll bet this becomes the basis for a number of law suits.

  96. Rickey says:

    It’s looking more and more like there will be written objections both in the House and Senate, so the vote counting is likely to drag on for hours, possibly into the next day.

    Ted Cruz is calling for a ten-day delay to conduct an “election audit.” Apparently he is unaware of the fact that the Electoral Vote Count Act of 1887 does not allow the Joint Session to go into recess for more than five calendar days, so his proposal is essentially prohibited by the law. Not to mention that there is nothing in the law or the Constitution that gives Congress the authority to conduct an audit of the election.

  97. I haven’t checked in here in a while. Wow, what a month. We had an unsuccessful coup and Trump is behaving just as shamefully as we could have imagined. We always knew how bad it would be if the Birthers actually won something. Four years of Trump have demonstrated that in awful ways.

    Meanwhile Robert Laity’s Harris Birther lawsuit is about to lose again on appeal and SCOTUS won’t even docket Leo Donofrio’s warm bucket of piss. Birther attorney John Eastman resigned from Chapman U. in shame.

    Good luck President Biden and Vice President Harris. We need you now more than you could imagine.

    I plan to continue you with blogging from time to time. I might even bring the radio show back if events warrant. (A Trump arrest in New York might be such an occasion).

    rcradioblog.wordpress.com

  98. Rickey says:

    John Eastman, the attorney who questioned Kamala Harris’ natural born citizenship last summer and represented Texas in the ill-fated lawsuit against Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Michigan, and Georgia, has resigned from his position at Chapman University. Many faculty members had called for his dismissal.

    https://www.forbes.com/sites/michaeltnietzel/2021/01/13/john-eastman-retires-from-chapman-university/?sh=27aa906365e7

  99. Chapman was defending him just a week or so before. I think his participation in the attempted coup finally tipped the scale.

    Rickey:
    John Eastman, the attorney who questioned Kamala Harris’ natural born citizenship last summer and represented Texas in the ill-fated lawsuit against Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Michigan, and Georgia, has resigned from his position at Chapman University. Many faculty members had called for his dismissal.

    https://www.forbes.com/sites/michaeltnietzel/2021/01/13/john-eastman-retires-from-chapman-university/?sh=27aa906365e7

  100. Orly’s case was dismissed sua sponte yesterday by Judge Cormac Carney. Orly says she’s going to appeal.

    ScottRS:
    Someone must have said her name three times, like Mary Worth:

    https://www.wonkette.com/look-which-birther-dentist-lawyer-clownshow-has-crawled-out-of-woodwork-for-trump-impeachment-suit

  101. Foggy is having severe problems with his hosting company. The forum went down yesterday. The problem sounds bad. He posted this on Facebook:

    Fogbow
    10m ·
    The nightmare is getting worse. They may have permanently lost the database, which only means every post we’ve ever done, plus all your login information, everything. I’m going to call Sitelock, I pay them a little more than $100/month to protect this website. Maybe they have a backup, or at least can tell me what’s going on.

  102. I set up a Google Drive folder with all of the episodes that I had saved of RC Radio. I think a few of the early episodes of Land of the Obots are lost in the ether but this contains the rest.

    https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1F3dH_jEe081IvQbmXeIQF4yt1dMujncf?usp=sharing

  103. I have created an index to the old content from Gerbil Report and added a link in this site’s “Features” menu.

  104. Thanks a lot, Rick. Should be nostalgic to listen to.

    Reality Check:
    I set up a Google Drive folder with all of the episodes that I had saved of RC Radio. I think a few of the early episodes of Land of the Obots are lost in the ether but this contains the rest.

    https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1F3dH_jEe081IvQbmXeIQF4yt1dMujncf?usp=sharing

  105. y_p_w says:

    So apparently there will be another event in Atlanta regarding the 2020 Presidential election. Several plaintiffs are making claims of possible “counterfeit” ballots inserted into mail-in ballots that were machine counted. I’d point out that only the mail-in ballot system in Georgia (where the state acquired all the equipment) uses traditional fill in the oval paper ballots. In person voting (early and election day) is solely by touchscreen, where each machine is connected to a printer and prints out a ballot with a QR code and all the votes in human-readable format.

    https://www.ajc.com/politics/georgia-headed-toward-another-presidential-election-audit/O6WU557RGZACJL3PUHVNKIP57M/

    The observers say they saw ballots that lacked fold creases, used different paper, and looked like they were marked by a machine instead of by hand. I don’t doubt they saw that, but it’s a pretty normal process called “ballot replacement” when there’s a problem with the ballot where it’s better to replace it with a ballot that can be read by scanner. Could be stains or tears. Could be improper marks that are easy for a human to see but the machine may not record them properly. They then void the original and then copy over all the votes – often by computer where a printer puts out a machine readable copy. Obviously the paper used may not match that of the ballot printer and the print process fills out the ovals with a machine marked oval instead of an outline oval.

    The kicker is that the plaintiffs won’t have physical access to the actual paper ballots. They’ll get scans of the originals as prepared by county employees. The judge wouldn’t allow direct access as it would violate state law on the custody of ballots (sounds familiar>). So they’re going to be doing analysis on electronic images. I mean – what could go wrong with this? Are they going to accuse government workers of “manufacturing” the images? Will they find “layers”? Are they going to being in printer salesmen to argue that the files were faked?

  106. gorefan says:

    10th Circuit Court of Appeals rules Wong Kim Ark decision is persuasive authority that English Common Law was the guide to acquisition of US citizenship by birth in the US.

    https://www.ca10.uscourts.gov/opinions/20/20-4017.pdf

    [A more direct link, Doc.]

  107. I added an image to the Epilog post that heads the site. It depicts the birther movement tombstone — not that it’s really dead.

  108. I have added a new item to the Features Menu, a collection of URLs at the Wayback machine pointing to 919 Birther Report articles between November of 2014 and September 2016.

    https://www.obamaconspiracy.org/birther-report-archives/

  109. Northland10 says:

    Oooh. Birther Report. Thx Doc. I needed some light time-wasting reading.

    Dr. Conspiracy:
    I have added a new item to the Features Menu, a collection of URLs at the Wayback machine pointing to 919 Birther Report articles between November of 2014 and September 2016.

    https://www.obamaconspiracy.org/birther-report-archives/

  110. Rickey says:

    Dr. Conspiracy:
    Mario Apuzzo, R. I. P.

    https://www.lestermemorialhome.com/obituary/mario-apuzzo

    No mention of all the time and effort he spent on his birther activities, I see. Until I read his obit I didn’t realize that Mario was not a natural-born-citizen. It’s curious that both he and Orly Taitz, two of the most prolific birthers, were not U.S. citizens at birth.

    Even so, 65 is too young to die.

  111. Yes, that is true but since I am older than Mario it is OK that I didn’t shed a tear for someone who lied with such ease and spread bile and venom? I shed no tears for Rush Limbaugh either.

    Rickey:

    Even so, 65 is too young to die.

  112. Northland10 says:

    As I am finding myself today searching through Doc’s blog for past posts and comments, I wanted to again thank the good Doc for all he did during those birther years and all the good posts he had.

    Also, I felt his blog needed a bump.

  113. Interesting article about who shares misinformation, low-conscientiousness conservatives (LCCs for short) who have an affinity for chaos.

    https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2022/01/14/we-found-the-one-group-of-americans-who-are-most-likely-to-spread-fake-news-526973

  114. I read that as Low Consciousness Conservatives. 😆

    Isn’t that just confirming what we already knew?

    Dr. Conspiracy: eresting article about who shares misinformation, low-conscientiousness conservatives (LCCs for short) who have an affinity for chaos.

  115. y_p_w says:

    There’s currently an administrative law hearing on the eligibility of Marjorie Taylor Greene to hold public office in Atlanta. Just brings back memories of another hearing that was discussed here.

    https://newschannel9.com/news/local/rep-marjorie-taylor-greene-appears-at-hearing-challenging-eligibility-friday-in-atlanta

  116. Reality_Check says:

    Challenge denied as I expected.
    https://lawandcrime.com/high-profile/rep-marjorie-taylor-greene-beats-14th-amendment-disqualification-bid-as-judge-finds-evidence-lacking-that-shes-an-insurrectionist/

    y_p_w: There’s currently an administrative law hearing on the eligibility of Marjorie Taylor Greene to hold public office in Atlanta. Just brings back memories of another hearing that was discussed here.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.