They wouldn’t vote for Obama anyway
I speak for myself, and perhaps for a lot of you, in saying that the one thing that made the birthers important, and what focused our attention on them was the possibility, even though we didn’t acknowledge it, that deep down we feared either that the birthers could influence the outcome of a close election and defeat Obama, or that a loss by Obama would signal a shift away from fact-based decision making in the country. Our hopeful mantra to ward off birthers making a real difference was “they wouldn’t vote for Obama anyway” and as I listened to CNN coverage last night, I didn’t hear the word “birther” mentioned one single time.
In fact, one of the last things I thought about last night was even bothering to look at what the birthers were saying, so irrelevant they seemed. However, prompted by a comment I saw on Twitter, I did drop by Orly’s web site where I found 4 separate huge titles urging her supporters to call the Romney campaign and demand that he not concede until all the votes were counted. One began “STOP!!!” How silly it sounds that a dentist in California and maybe a few hundred people who read her blog last evening could make the slightest difference in the decision-making process of a presidential campaign. To me the silliness of the attempt is emblematic of just how irrelevant birthers really are once history has intervened and said: “no, birthers didn’t effect the outcome of the 2012 Presidential Election.”
Every day for weeks now there have been multiple alerts from Google News on keywords like “Obama birth certificate” and “Orly Taitz.” There were none last evening. Yesterday morning I saw, for example, something from the Dallas Morning news below that I cannot imagine being written today:
And while the discourse was often petty — with obsessions over gaffes, Obama’s birth certificate and Big Bird — the candidates offer vastly different visions on taxes, changes to entitlement programs that serve tens of millions of Americans.
The road ahead, I believe, will be characterized by a sharp drop in any mainstream concern over birthers, and with that lack of attention, birthers lose their power, a power that was never more than a specter of the crazies running the asylum. Interest in birtherism will now truly become, as Obama termed it, “bemusement.”
Nut cases will not shut up. They live in a world of denial in which the election is just one more proof of the evil Obama thugs taking over the country. My neighbor talked yesterday about leaving the country if Obama won, but they won’t leave the country—things are going too well for them here. Orly Taitz will continue her lawsuits and lose, and likely garner stiff sanctions in the process. Her donations, such as they are, will dry up. I think the “two citizen parent” crank legal theory will have the wind knocked out of their sails because it no longer has any chance of influencing voters.
So what does this mean for me?
The birthers always surprise, and I’ll cover whatever crazy twist they come up with; however, there is no urgency any more. I can practice bemusement.
> How silly it sounds that a dentist in California and maybe a few hundred people who read her blog last evening could make the slightest difference in the decision-making process of a presidential campaign.
Even sillier given their current track record of writing whiney/threaty letters to everyone and his dog.
The only actual success birthers ever had was getting Sheriff Joe hooked on the issue, but even that eventually turned out another big failure.
But I’m not surprised that the desire to cling to yet another impossible dream didn’t die last night – they still hope that now Romney will turn birther (as he has “nothing to lose” anymore), that Obama will be impeached over this or that, or that Sheriff Joe will get back on the case if he’s re-elected (any info on that BTW?), or that they now have new avenues to litigate (like trying to enjoin the EC from voting, or Congress from certifying their votes etc.) which “will end the Obama presidency” etc.
So the delusions will continue unabashed. The majority of them simply can’t admit they’ve wasted 4 years on nothing, so they will stick to it (a typical psychological pattern in cranks), possibly for the rest of their lives.
In 2058, the first mayor of the first Mars colony will tell anecdotes of his crazy old grandfather still harping on about “that illegal presidency 5 decades ago, followed by that other illegal presidency of the Asian transgendered one in 2038 who wasn’t born with proper chromosomes as dictated by the Constitution and Major vs. Happenstance from 1882”.
Arpaio was re-elected.
I have mixed emotions about this. On the one hand, reality triumphing over idiocy is a Great Thing. On the other, I’ve met some awesome anti-birthers and their mates — especially Doc and his wonderful wife Mrs. C. I’ll miss meet-ups.
Now I’ll be looking for a new hobby. This one has been fun.
It’s not obvious that Taitz will continue her lawsuits for very long if Mr Tepper and Mr Begley continue their action against her. Taitz has turned down their offer of “pay us $25,000, dismiss your case, go away and stop defaming us for ever and we’ll call it quits” so she is now open to six-figure sanctions for their actual fees and possibly damages for defamation as she has been so horrible about many honest folk.
Mr Tepper will probably get Taitz declared a vexatious litigant, which can’t completely stop her that status (usually) only applies to the jurisdiction it is assigned in, but it makes it easier for anybody else who is harassed elsewhere to get her nutjobbery kicked out expeditiously (by referencing the status), and to get Taitz to pay their costs.
Additionally Mr Tepper can make a stronger move to get the completely apathetic and unethical California Bar to disbar Taitz for her misdemeanors in court. Disbarred she can sue on her own, but that gets more difficult if she has vexatious litigant status. And they have an “in” on the Mississippi Bar, who might not be impressed with Taitz apparently practicing law there without a bar licence or pro hac vice status; I don’t know if they can apply sanctions on their own, or have pull over the useless California Bar
Taitz has succeeded so far for several reasons:
* the courts have indulged her as if she’s a harmless nutter who deserves a day in court
* defendants have been most interested in dismissing her nonsense quickly rather than permanently
* the multiple jurisdictions allow her to screech the same nonsense in many places as if it were new stuff
* the US legal system follows the principle that each party pays their own costs (many countries follow the basic principle that the loser pays the costs of the case).
The last is probably one of the most important. Taitz can spend her own time on her crusade, but if she finds that the defendants are saying “hey judge, this case is crap, get this vexatious litigant to pay our fees” then she’ll rapidly find herself hundreds of thousands of dollars out of pocket. She doesn’t like paying up (witness her interminable pleas to her “supporters”).
That’s essentially what happened with the sanctions that Mr Ritt of Occidental College obtained in Mississippi: he said “she’s being vile and stupid, she should pay our fees” and the judge agreed, effectively making the loser (and we know the birthers always lose!) pay. But I wouldn’t be surprised if Mr Tepper didn’t also start trying to get the other sorts of sanction, the sort Judge Land applied, which are effectively fines for lawyerly misconduct.
With Taitz shut down, even the more stupid birthers, such as Apuzzo and Farrar, will probably sniff the wind, and realise that they could find themselves substantially poorer and possibly with a lien on their home.
Shutting Taitz down won’t stop the whinging. But it might severely curtail the harassment in the court system.
So far, Scott Tepper doesn’t to my knowledge represent any party in California being sued by Taitz. That would be necessary for him to get her declared a vexatious litigant. That’s not to say that someone else in California will. I suppose Tepper and Begley could pursue that in Mississippi, but California is her home base, and the only place where she’s admitted to the bar.
Taitz is actually considering throwing in the towel! http://www.orlytaitzesq.com/?p=361962
Expect Birfoons to desperately attempt to convince one each of Congress and Senate to make a formal objection to the certification of EC votes but Birfoonism will continue albeit in an even less coherent fashion (I know hard to belive but Orly nevah dissapoints….)
What does worry me is the probable ramp up of anti Moslem/Gay/Liberal/Other feeling and actions by those who now KNOW how irrelevent and otherwise powerless they are.
Hope I’m wrong….
Well, since they’ve proven they can’t even be arsed to visit birther rallies in larger numbers, the danger that they are doing something stupid in the real world is rather small.
The search for “one honest …” continues. Kinda like the birther Holy Grail. After that, expect more “citizen grand juries” and fake trials to, pardon my French, jack off over.
Hmmm…her site doesn’t respond. Is this white screen a towel? Heh.
Perhaps she’s been targeted again …. by the world’s collective decency.
I took another look over at The Steady Drip, and it looks like Sam “We Are Winning, This I Know” Sewell pretty much has thrown in the towel.
I hope he means what he says, has truly recognized there is a problem, and has really snapped out of it.
And Clayton County GOP Chair Carl S. has gutted the homepage of his Rise Up for America web cesspool for birther bigots.
The pages are still accessible via Google but all of the homepage links are gone.
Birthers are spiraling down quickly.
ORYR blocked my IP from posting yesterday, yet they had no problem with many anti-birthers posting during the last months (with the moderator telling his birther minions he had no time to moderate the answers).
They are shell-shocked, so let’s see what they do next…
>>> BY GOD , ” WE THE PEOPLE ” ARE NOT AMUSED . THIS ASSHOLE WHO HAS ALREADY DESTROYED OUR ECONOMY AND THE AMERICAN WAY OF LIFE , NOW HAS ANOTHER OPPORTUNITY TO CREATE A COMMUNIST NATION WITH MUSLIMS CONTROLLING IT .
I, however, am B-MUSED that even after the election people run around ranting this total and utter nonsense. Didn’t you get the memo to stop running political ads?
Obama is a Christian, and apparently a very good one, not a Muslim, and we are not becoming a Communist nations. Our economy is BETTER since Obama took office, not worse.
I continue to wonder now anyone stays alive in modern society when they lack the most basic critical thinking skills.
Glad that you continue to maintain bemusement, and have not given in to demusement. They’re irritating, but the nuts will always be with us. What more could you do, right?
I am thoroughly amused at the icon assigned to Mr. Tapp. Apropos!