I had begun laying out this article in my head when I saw a comment by Rickey:
I kind of miss the old days, when I would check out Jack Ryan’s page at Scribd and there would be new material on a near-daily basis. I just checked and the last thing he posted was the defendant’s response in Taitz v. Colvin nine days ago.
Comrade Fogovich (Foggy) and I were discussing this on Tuesday’s Reality Check Radio show, that not much was really going on with the birthers nowadays. He says that he thinks that there are now more active anti-birthers online now than birthers. May be. That’s hard for me to judge from myself-imposed exile, but it does rather seem to me that the birther movement is terminally ill and on life support. I do not mean that soon there will be no birthers, only that birther activism will drop below the noise level on the Internet.
I wrote prematurely in 2011 of the demise of the birther movement under my alter ego, Obot1. What I did not anticipate in that article was the Cold Case Posse, a quasi-law enforcementish political smear labeled “an investigation” that generated loads of publicity inside the birther bunker and gave them hope (albeit an obviously false hope). The CCP today isn’t even trying to do anything except get Paypal donations, not that any such effort ever had a chance. Team Arpaio was defeated 7-0 by Team Xerox. Orly Taitz isn’t even good for a laugh any more.
The other thing keeping birthers birthing online is the case before the Alabama Supreme Court (MacInnish v. Chapman), a case universally misunderstood by birthers, and which wouldn’t do them any good even if they won it. Its demise will, I hope, teach them the futility of the “one good judge” gambit.
Besides those, there are the brain dead reflexive responses of “false flag” and the repetition of court-rejected arguments about what “natural born citizen” means from the likes of Farrar and Noonan.
There are zombie undead lawsuits still lumbering around the courts eating brains, but it’s hard to get excited about them. Once the Cold Case Posse shoots its wad with the 2nd flop Zullo book with the Hayes Report, it will be all over except the shouting. It’s a pretty dark and gloomy picture for birthers and anti-birthers alike (maybe the cold and the rain here are getting to me).
Personally, I’m still interested in Taitz, et. al. v. Mississippi Democratic Party Executive Committee, Obama, Pelosi, Fukino, Onaka, et. al. Since Judge Wingate is a Reagan appointee, when ever he finally issues a ruling, any ruling on dispositive motions should be interesting. And I too am interested in McInnish, et. al. v. Chapman in Alabama because the plaintiffs are Republicans, the defendant (Alabama’s Secretary of State) is a Republican and every judge on the Alabama Supreme Court is a Republican as well. The only Democratic input is an amicus brief submitted by the Alabama Democratic Party in support of the Secretary of State.
“It’s a pretty dark and gloomy picture for birthers and anti-birthers alike.”
Not so much for anti-birthers, as we’ll be able to move on and find new things of interest, where as birthers will remain bitter and consumed with hatred for Obama, long after his second term ends, and his successor takes his place in 2017.
Truth is, they need a new champion…someone new to carry their torch now that all the others have shown only failure. One foolish congressman who hitches their career to the birthers, that will give them a fresh charlatan to lead them. Unless/until that happens, they are only left with the grifters trying to scam them out of their social security checks. I have a feeling though, that when/if used car salesman Zullo releases his book, he’s not going to have much of an audience left.
I have to agree…the nuttery of birthers has finally brought itself down. Hubris will do that to you. They can’t even get media attention any more, except for the occasional ridicule when they turn up to disrupt an event.
They claim a victory when a Congressman, hearing their drivel, foists them on an aide, who listens to the drivel, and reports back to his boss, “You don’t want to talk to these people, they’re crazy.”
And you see the stuff some of these clowns put out…Orly getting obsessive about people parked in a van near her house playing with their laptops…the infighting… the dark and idiotic threats of coup d’etats and bloody vengeance against their enemies…the increasingly shriller, harsher, personally abusive rhetoric.
I almost feel sorry for them.
The problem is, being fanatics, it’s all they’ve got. Their fanaticism is all that raises their barren and useless lives from being barren and useless. Without the fanaticism, they are just outcasts, psychotics, paranoids, and losers. With the fanaticism, they are cutting-edge crusaders. It’s their whole identity.
Don’t over estimate how “new” a recycled Birther 1/2 volt lightning rod has to be to pass as a new Birther “champion”, Jim.
If Tim Adams became a plumber and was caught red-handed in a Roto-Rooting Adult triangle with Charles Lincoln III and this century’s most notorious Constitutional dentist, and the scandal included a moment where Tim swore that “Everybody who ever employed a motor-driven drain router as an adult toy, knew absolutely, that Obama was not a Natural Born Citizen”, Lyle Rapacki could issue a “white paper” angsting about the potential for this new Constitution-elucidating evidence to foment a military coup d’etat and the destruction of civilization (except those companies contracting his security services), the Post & E-mail would publish a tease article pretending Lyle’s crap-sheet had “gone viral” and, for subscribers only, flesh out that claim with redundant restatements, spiced up with incorrect punctuation, World Nut Daily would reprint that article, inserting an ad offering to show you how to turn your atheistic uncle into a newspaper-burning survivalist furnace, ORYR would reprint both articles under different headlines, specifically adding some doubt as to which major U.S. Cities were being under-serviced by Obama created FEMA concentration camps, and Karl GallOOPs would agree with Mike Zoo Low on the phone that all of this activity PROVED that the congressional investigation of the Obama forgery case, had successfully concluded, for $29.95.
Birthers are itching to hear “good” news so bad, that any stupid manufactured anti-Obama utterance, can take its source in 1 second from Zero or Nero, to Hero!
They will have pretty much all switched (back) to Hillary hating by then (assuming).
They have enough fake ‘information’ to keep them going for her 2 terms.
Success is difficult when your core issue lacks facts, evidence or reality. The parable of the wise and foolish builders has the foolish one building a house on sand. The Birthers have been trying to build a house on imaginary ground. That first stone keeps falling on their foot, but they keep at it.
Burrrp! Needed that. Feel better now.
No matter how many particular strains fade away, The Stupid springs eternal. True connoisseurs can find new joys every day.
From the anti-birther side, I would agree; however, I think most birthers are resigned to the fact that Taitz is a wholly incompetent attorney, and they do not have any positive expectations for Mississippi.
Last night I dreamt I visited this site and you had closed down and announced that you think birtherism is dead and you will move on to greener pastures.
Good thing that was a dream. 🙂 Patrick closed down and neither WND nor ORYR are any fun anymore. This site is my only connection to birtherism and it’s still entertaining.
Joey,
I’m curious as to what you think a positive ruling for birthers might look like in either Alabama or Mississippi. The consensus of obots seems to be that both cases will be dismissed—not because the judges are Democrats or Republicans, but because they are judges and neither case has any legal merit (nor is it possible for either case to provide whatever remedy that the birthers are hoping for, even if decided in their favor).
I find it fascinating that birthers continue to hold out hope that they will eventually find their “one honest judge” even though there is no reason to believe that the next case will be any different than the previous cases. How many cases must be dismissed, how many arguments deemed frivolous, how many sanctions need to be levied before you will admit that the birther position has no merit and President Obama is natural born?
I would also like to know what you make of this fact: In Mississippi President Obama’s lawyers offered Orly Taitz a deal whereby she would dismiss the case and pay them $25,000. To me that suggests that they believe that the judge will award significantly higher sanctions if Ms. Taitz continued to pursue it. Which she did (although she seems to be mostly ignoring it these days as if she’s hoping it will just go away). One of these days Judge Wingate will rule and the defense will ask the court for sanctions and probably receive them. If events do unfold in this manner, would it affect your beliefs regarding the merits of the birther argument in any way? If not, what would it take to convince you that you were wrong?
Where’s that symbol for “infinity” again?
Actually, they are searching for their “one honest dictator who ignores any law that gets in his way”. Because in most cases, they demand that judges take actions they are not legally entitled to (such as force another state to comply with their demands for documents).
They dream that some judge in Burnt Scrotum, AZ, can just go
“Hawaii, turn over all your vault documents, and Obama, move your a** here and receive my verdict, and now you will go to jail directly, do not go to “impeachment/conviction”; and if any of your lawyers so much as say a word in my courtroom, I will have them hung for treason on the spot! And now, sheriff, go and arrest and shoot all members of Congress and the Democratic Party!”.
That’s a projection of their wet dreams of omnipotence.
It worked for Stalin.
Of course! It’s what every “patriot” wants, right? yeah, there’s a word that birthers and other assorted RWNJs have forever tarnished. “Patriot” used to be a prideful word, but after they got done with it, it’s just short hand for “bigoted nut job”!
“The CCP today isn’t even trying to do anything except get Paypal donations, not that any such effort ever had a chance.”
Have to disagree with you here, I think the effort to get Paypal donations had a very good chance. For anything else, remember it’s 0-200+, and counting. As you pointed out a while back, Doc, the one undoubted contribution birtherism has made to the legal system is to create additional precedents on responding to frivolous lawsuits.
I can’t speak for Joey, but I am interested in the Mississippi case – not for the decision on the Motion to Dismiss, which is a certainty, but to see if Judge Wingate is going to bring the hammer down on Orly.
The Alabama case is of interest only because the Chief Justice, Roy Moore, is a RWNJ. It is clear that Alabama law does not require its Secretary of State to vet candidates, so it is difficult to see how the court could rule for the plaintiffs unless the justices decide to ignore the law. Even if that happened it would be a pyrrhic victory for the birthers, because the Alabama Supreme Court is not going to rule on Obama’s eligibility. All the court can do is order the Secretary of State to vet the candidates. Obama could then produce a certified copy of his birth certificate, or he could ignore the Secretary of State. Either way it wouldn’t bring the birthers any closer to where they hope to go.
I think the hammer will come down at the request of the defense after the dismissal. I highly doubt that Judge Wingate will sanction Orly sua sponte, but the settlement offer by the defense shows that they intend to actively pursue the matter. I can’t wait to see how Orly reacts to all of this unfolding… I suspect that she is incapable of even considering the possibility that she will be held accountable for her actions.
Any. Day. Now.
So what’s taking Alabama so long, anyway? Is Moore just delaying the inevitable to keep that next big door from slamming in the birthers’ faces?
…hmm, as I’m typing this in, I see on the twit feed that someone in birferland believes a decision is coming down tomorrow. (And of course that the frogs, they will be marching.) Is there anything that supports this conjecture?
One thing that a lot of the talk about the death of birferism ignores is that people who are delusional–in the clinical psychology sense of the word–can’t simply decide to stop obsessing about something. Their brains don’t work that way. Delusional people sometimes lose their job and their family because they can’t stop obsessing over their conspiracy theories. I think a lot of the remaining birfers are delusional. They will waste the rest of their lives chasing this birfer nonsense.
I believe that the story about a decision in Alabama tomorrow originated with the birther “Coach.” I have no idea if there is any reason to think that he knows what he is talking about.
Basic meme theory. Unsourced claims that appear to be “spectacular”, “sensational” or “revealing” spread like wildfire.
And of course in true conspiracy fashion, if nothing happens on the AL SC today, the conspiracyverse will go “another delay… Obama got to them…” or the more optimistic version “another delay… Judge Moore is making sure all his bases are covered before he hands down the usurper-removing Verdict of Doom ANY DAY NOW”.
Over at ORYR, Blue Falcon keeps returning to this item/article of faith about AL even though several posters over there have repeatedly told him what is ACTUALLY happening.
Still, no fool like a Birfoon fool…….
Falcon is the poster child of the birther movement. He’ll even take swipes at his own for the cause. He’ll publicly rebuke any who isn’t just as crazy as he.
BamaLaw, a poster at The Fogbow, is at the courthouse in Montgomery today and he will announce it if a decision comes down in the McInnish case. BamaLaw says that the Bar exam results are being posted today so there are 347 more lawyers than usual milling around.
BamaLaw reports at Fogbow that there was no decision handed down today in the McInnish case. Another birther false alarm.
Yes, another fail. A fail because a clerk at SCOAL told a birther who called to check to check back Friday after 11:30.
All SCOAL decisions come down on Fridays. The birther wrongly assumed because he was told to check back on Friday that it meant the decision was going to be handed down this Friday.
More evidence of how birthers (don’t) properly connect dots.
The birther storm troopers are getting as thin as Corporal Z’s hair. The investigation was Dead on Arrival when Arpaio turned everything over to volunteers. Arpaio new it was a joke and used it as a publicity gimmick to placate his ignorant Tea Party supporters. Too bad the same ignorant fools will buy Zullo’s next book. I’ll save them their $19.95 by telling the end of the story. The effort failed. Zullo failed. Sanity failed.
I still think that Falcon is sock puppet of C.F. Kerchner, who – under that name – can show his real, horrible face.
“I still think that Falcon is sock puppet of C.F. Kerchner, who – under that name – can show his real, horrible face.”
FALCON is a real pathetic piece of work. And so very easily controlled by Captain Z!
May be you make a better guess than I ..
Klayman’s appeal in Voeltz v. Obama was dismissed today.
Because petitioner has failed to show a clear legal right to the relief requested, he is not entitled to mandamus relief. Accordingly, the petition for writ of mandamus is hereby denied. See Huffman v. State, 813 So. 2d 10, 11 (Fla. 2000).
http://jweb.flcourts.org/pls/docket/ds_docket?p_caseyear=2013&p_casenumber=560&psCourt=FSC&psSearchType=
Another Klayman effort turns to dust. Can’t wait for Alabama!
Be sure to check back Friday after 11:30.
Did you hear that, birthers? I said, check back Friday after 11:30 nudge nudge wink wink. You really ought to be there, in Alabama, in person, Friday after 11:30. Bring your frogs! This time, for sure!
Any day now! But don’t forget to send your money while we wait for the results. I can see the ORYR headlines now…….
“Alabama Ignores Evidence of 110% Forgery. More Proof of Birth Certificate Forgery” “*FALCON* Calls For 1 Million Bird Migration To Pollute Steps Of Alabama Supreme Court!”
I too will be sad if that happens, & am sad that I’ve lost the laughs from reading Patrick’s & other blogs. In 2008 when I read Birther posts I felt shock, surprise & anger because all of these crazy RWNJB hypotheses about HI birth certificates were in such contradiction to my records as a Hawaiian & Hawaii resident. I’d been following conspiracists since the early 90’s on Art Bell’s radio show& elsewhere, & Birthers sounded like the 21st century’s version of the same. The anger passed & it has been just laughs now, & fascination to read how there are Americans who are so stupid & clueless out there.
You’ve always been a class act Doc. My issues with procrastination, when I have to get to real work, have been mitigated by the time I get to spend entertaining myself here. Mahalo. If Hillary runs, I believe the Birthers will ramp up their crazy. Also, if Cruz runs, their angst will be fun to watch. I’m still going to stock up on the popcorn. I think this will still be entertaining until 2017, even if not as busy as before.
AGREED! Birtherism is simply a cancerous crazy affecting a small and decreasing portion of the populace. There will always be dead-enders. Their “cause” never had any real basis, other than irrational hate and paranoia. Those folks will likely wallow in some form of that regardless, for the rest of their petty and miserable lives. For those who simply monitor the crazy as a hobby, there will always (sadly) be lots of crazy out there to monitor. Personally, I’d rather live in a sane and rational world without it at all and find entertainment in other ways, but there will always be nuts out there and someone needs to keep an eye on them.