Courtesy of the Daily Beast:
Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz said Saturday that he'd been hearing concerns about Jade Helm 15, a domestic military training exercise that has become a fount of conspiracy theories, and that he wanted questions about it to be answered.
"My office has reached out to the Pentagon to inquire about this exercise," Cruz, a Texas senator, told Bloomberg at the South Carolina Republican Party's annual convention. "We are assured it is a military training exercise. I have no reason to doubt those assurances, but I understand the reason for concern and uncertainty, because when the federal government has not demonstrated itself to be trustworthy in this administration, the natural consequence is that many citizens don't trust what it is saying."
The paranoia about Jade Helm, which started on websites like Alex Jones's InfoWars, had started with familiar fulmination about a mass seizure of firearms or a cover-up for American "death squads." This week, Texas Governor Greg Abbott channeled the concerns of voters in the Southwest, asking the Texas state guard to monitor the exercise for any violations of freedom. "It is important that Texans know their safety, constitutional rights, private property rights and civil liberties will not be infringed," said the governor.
We mocked Governor Abbott last week for his response to the conspiracy theory crowd, but who among us is really surprised that Cruz so readily boarded this bandwagon?
After all without unsubstantiated fear and paranoia Cruz would never have been elected in the first place.
Once again Texas is pulling ahead in the "we're the most batshit crazy state in the country" sweepstakes.
Yeah, because FEMA camps and martial law....Don't you see it Gryphen? These yearly training situations, that have been going on since WWII were all set up by the country of Kenya to set it up for Obummer to put it into place in his 7th yr in office.
ReplyDeleteGot any links for this?
Delete7:25, I'm pretty sure 6:27 was satire.
DeleteThe only thing that surprises me is that Cruz is bringing up the rear of this crazy parade instead of leading it.
ReplyDeleteVisit any RW site, especially the 4pees, and you'll see paranoia plus! I swear these people will keep Reynold's Aluminum in business forever! They can quote their scripture until the cows come home, but do they get off their collective @sses to help their fellow man? Oh HELL no. They hide behind their screens and fret over that big bad boogieman that's out to get them.
DeleteI have no doubt that the little pow wow that $arah, Tawd, Creepy Chuck Sr., with Teddie around the table at the dead lake compound was to give him his marching orders. Ala the Scrubbing Bubbles commercial, "he works hard, so they don't have to."
Look at his eyebrows which show all his fear and paranoia. He is no leader.
DeleteCruz: "I never said you killed your wife, but I have no proof that you didn't".
ReplyDeleteThis is the really nasty way the GOTP cast doubt in the minds of the witless. The shame of it all is that they get away with it -- too many witless folk around, I guess....
In this case it's like, even though she is still alive and are about to celebrate your 25th anniversary...despite those rumors your mother in law, who suffers from alzheimers and schizophrenia ) started on her (your wife's) mysterious disapearance when you two went to Paris for your twentieh wedding anniversary...
DeleteAnd more comign with the TeaTHUGlican attacks on education.
DeleteHey crazy bible thumpers, where's the FEMA relocation camps with UN soldiers in control? GD brainless fools!
ReplyDeleteJim Wright explains about the tunnels between all the closed Wallmarts that have been turned into the FEMA Camps. Jim has such a way with words when he edumacates the paranoid dweebs. Maybe if Kruz had joined the Army instead have going to Harvard he might have learned a lot more about our defensive training in the country. He might have learned you don't read "Green Eggs and Ham" to Congress - too many Texans to understand it.
DeleteForgot the link to Stonekettle Station!
Deletehttp://www.stonekettle.com/2015/05/jade-helm-insanity-that-ate-texas.html
Love me some Jim Wright!
DeleteThanks, Gryph, for having him in your blogroll!
a) What are these cretins so afraid of? Haven't we been assured by these traitorous dolts that the vast majority of the troops and officers loathes their Commander-in-Chief and are eagerly awaiting the chance to turn on the evil gummint?
ReplyDeleteb) If the denizens of the state of Texas are so convinced that the United States Armed Forces are out to get them, then we can alleviate those fears by taking all US Armed Forces bases, equipment, personnel, and revenues out of the state. While we are at it, all federal installations, equipment, and personnel, including agencies as diverse as NASA and local Social Security offices.
We can leave them enough money to build themselves a border fence. Maybe the lightbulb will go on after they have built their alligator moat. Maybe.
With the money saved, we can provide allowances to sane Texans to either stay or relocate.
Welcome to the Paranoiac's Glorious Republic of Texastupidonia.
These bozos also thought that WALMART closing the stores for plumbing problems were part of Jade Helm?!
ReplyDeletehttp://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/article/Texans-blame-secret-military-drills-for-Walmart-cl-6214696.php
I can't keep up with these messages. America is #1. American exceptionism. Michelle Obama was ashamed of her country. Love it or leave it. Our government is broken. We need to break up the government. You can't trust our government. The government is coming after you.
ReplyDeleteOur government is not broken. The Republicans and FOX have been spewing that message for eons now and thank god the majority know better and reelected President Obama the second time.
DeleteIt has frosted their asses and they've never gotten over it. Plus, he's half black and they don't like that issue either! They are just one ugly bunch!
The only ones gunning for our freedom is the Republicans. They want to take away many rights that we now have. They want to control women and their reproductive freedom, including birth control. They want to take away our right to vote though whatever means possible. They want to take away our rights to a decent non partisan education. They want to take the entire field of science away. They want to take away our clean air and clean water; they want to sell our national lands to the highest bidder. They want to reinstate discrimination under the guise of religious freedom.
ReplyDeleteAnd if they have their way, there will soon be another Inquisition by means of instituting a national religion that all must adhere to or face criminal charges and probably death.
This is why I keep guns G. If these nutcases get power, we are all going to need a gun or two and lots of ammunition.
OT - This is a blind item reveal on Crazy Days & Nights from March 24, 2015
ReplyDeleteThis former B list celebrity turned reality star turned magazine pinup is expecting another baby. No, his current significant other who also had his children or his ex who also had children with him knows yet. The good news is our former B lister thinks he might have a job lined up very soon.
Levi Johnston
Oh please. I don't think so.
DeleteI call BULLS_IT on this/you!
DeleteA) Levi is not a B List celebrity - never really was a celebrity
B) he HAS a well paying job and is not looking for another one.
Levi has been working for eons and has a sweet family, a good wife and is a wonderful man himself. I'm an Alaskan and many of us wish him well.
DeleteHe was just very unlucky as a naïve boy to get involved with Bristol Palin and hence the Palin family.
He's moved away from them and is doing very well for himself and his family. Plus, he loves living in Alaska.
O/T -- Re Post caption -- should be internet-driven fears
ReplyDeleteIt is two words defining a noun.
Your pro-bono editor. :D
The word "Internet" should be capitalized. It is a proper noun.
DeleteYour OCD friend ;-)
AP Style went to lowercase Internet and Web three or four years ago.
DeleteDon't change a thing and let them figure it out. Just to bug the shit out of them.
DeleteThe Fartknocker Report: Sarah Palin Says No Racists On $20 Bill, Let’s Stick With Andrew Jackson
ReplyDelete...Who can tell the rest of the class what’s wrong with Sarah’s reasoning here? Anyone? Can anyone tell the rest of the class what’s wrong with Sarah’s reasoning regarding Andrew Motherfucking Jackson here?
http://wonkette.com/584377/the-fartknocker-report-sarah-palin-says-no-racists-on-20-bill-lets-stick-with-andrew-jackson#iqARoWjktOKlFeDA.99
When President Obama suggested a woman be placed on one of our paper monies, I'm sure Sarah Palin was sitting on her dead lake in Wasilla, Alaska yelling 'me, me, me'! Haha!
DeleteFear is almost what you have to peddle when you have no constructive ideas.
ReplyDeleteAin't never gonna happen you fools:
ReplyDeleteWhy Sarah Palin should run for U.S. president
Supporters increase calls for former Alaskan governor to seek Republican nomination for president.
...Indeed, while most of the American political elite have long dismissed Palin as a toxic joke, her supporters are as fiercely loyal as ever and increasingly vocal in their calls for her to seek the Republican nomination.
...Palin says she doesn’t feel pressured to make a final decision, but her extensive political network in Iowa and New Hampshire is ready to ramp up once she gives them a go-ahead.
For Palin, the decision to run or not run will be tough because the 2016 contest will likely be her last chance to reverse the image of her as a political disaster and to be taken as a serious contender.
http://www.thestar.com/opinion/commentary/2015/05/02/why-sarah-palin-should-run-for-us-president-hepburn.html
So, Hepburn brings up Rob Ford as a comparison??? Wow, $arah, how do you like them apples? You should run because it will be fun to watch, he said. As he also said, as we IMers have for months, by all means run and let's see what America thinks. Got the 'cajones' to do that, girlfriend? Tick tock. Here kitty kitty kitty......
Delete8:05 AM You are a joke! Palin doesn't have the money or supporters behind her at all. Even Alaskans cannot abide the woman and the national Republican party wants zero to do with her.
DeleteDream on, you idiot!
"It is important that Texans know their safety, constitutional rights, private property rights and civil liberties will not be infringed," said the governor. - oh, so Governor Abbott will put a stop to the Legislature's assault on women's health clinics to remain open, accessible, and fully operational?
ReplyDeleteTed Cruz takes positions that would grow the military and give them more freedom to practice his religion, and share it with the rest of the world.
ReplyDeleteAt the same time, he encourages freedom loving patriots to take up arms against the military and wrestle the country out of the illegitimate hands of those who won elections with votes instead of cash.
Why, it's almost as if the Koch brothers were trying to start a second revolutionary war - one where they would emerge as the anointed leaders of plutocratic monotheistic paradise for .5 percent of the population.
Religion does not go with government! Republicans are shoving religion down the throats of Americans. It's no wonder they feel as though religion is being rejected throughout the country. They've brought it on themselves.
DeletePlus, they do not live the religious teachings. They spread hate, fear, racism, lies, and divisiveness.
Damn, all of Sarah Palin's political blow jobs are fucking nuts, just like her!
ReplyDeleteI think the US government should remove every federal installation from Texas and move them to states where they will be more welcome. To Michigan, for example.
ReplyDeleteBeaglemom
You know, with all this hooplah about this exercise, and more and more politicians getting involved with the tinfoil crowd, I am starting to get nervous. Nervous about these crazed Teabaggers, especially in Texas, but also in other Red States, who will be 'watching' - and potentially 'open-carrying' the exercises, and potentially causing an incident that WILL spark some type of government action, and then get totally blown out of proportions.
ReplyDeleteThis asshat and creepy old fuck chuckles make my stomach turn. there's just something sooo sleazy and wrong about those 2 on all different levels.
ReplyDeleteTexan politicians (except those in Austin - they are majority Democrats!) are as bad as those in Alaska. Damn, but there are so many Republican quakes out there!
ReplyDeleteVote, vote, vote and get them out of office! Residents of both states should not be afraid of the money being brought in from outside their states - votes are what count. Get the people to the polls!
"The tools of conquest do not necessarily come with bombs and explosions and fallout. There are weapons that are simply thoughts, attitudes, prejudices — to be found only in the minds of men. For the record, prejudices can kill — and suspicion can destroy — and a thoughtless frightened search for a scapegoat has a fallout all of its own — for the children — and the children yet unborn. And the pity of it is — that these things cannot be confined — to the Twilight Zone."
ReplyDeleteRod Serling, closing narration, The Monsters Are Due On Maple Street, 1960
I am so hoping for Random Probabilities to give TX a power blackout during Jade Helm. Am I just a guy who enjoys laughing 'til he cries, or am I bad?
DeleteAmerica Now! Love that show and Rod's brilliance!
DeleteWell I called my airline and rebooked myself around Dallas. I don't want to stop anywhere there is martial law. That governor really has a problem on his hands.
ReplyDeleteOT but related to Cruz: Palin, stumping for Cruz in Austin, gets Bernie Sanders' name wrong (Bernice Anders), and referred to him as "she" or "her" several times. Palin spokesperson spins she meant to do that. Pretty funny.
ReplyDeleteHappened two days ago and I only see one reference to it
http://nationalreport.net/palin-warns-voters-bernice-anders-socialist-vermont-obama/
National Review is like the Onion. A parody site.
DeleteOh... :-(
DeleteHard to tell the difference a lot of times with Palin! Stranger than fiction.
I love how the candidates in the sweepstakes for being the furthest right cannot afford to diss the conspiracy nut/prepper types.
ReplyDeleteI would like to see them grilled about this in the debates -- see if the candidates can be made to agree to something like, "No, I don't agree that Obama's intentional plan all along was to lead the new Caliphate," or "No, I don't really think there is a secret government plan promote racial discord in order to spark a new civil war as a means to impose martial law."
Whatever the particular theory is, the punchline is ALWAYS that he longs to impose martial law and take away all the guns.
During the last GOP debates, all the candidates were asked to raise their hands if they didn't believe in evolution. Several did!
DeleteIt's just a simple yes/no type of question that you're promoting, and it would immediately identify the lunatics from the simply moronic.
My grandfather, who worked as a federal prosecutor for FDR and worked with Bobby Kennedy during the Kennedy administration would be absolutely appalled at this current crop of loonies, appalled as I am. I may be a Texan, but I am not part of the lunatic fringe! If all the decent people leave the state, it had no hope of changing. I turn my back on Cruz and Abbott in absolute shame.
ReplyDeleteHear, hear 1034!
DeleteI've been following the Jade Helm lunacy since it's public acknowledgement. This is the RWNJ dream come true. The spin becomes more outrageous daily with the latest being FEMA trains with shackles and guillotines ready to accept citizens from the Walmart 'detention centers' of which there is this vast network of underground tunnels connecting these Walmarts. As someone further up the posts suggested; the real fear is that there are armed RWNJ's ready to 'protect'. That's the scary part of this.
ReplyDeleteRead Jim Wright's current essay on Stonekettle Station for his always on target and humorous take on the conspiracy
http://www.stonekettle.com/2015/05/jade-helm-insanity-that-ate-texas.html
Sheesh
"....but I understand the reason for concern and uncertainty, because when the federal government has not demonstrated itself to be trustworthy in this administration....."
ReplyDeleteHow exactly has this administration proven itself to be untrustworthy? And what has it done that sets it apart from any other administration in that regard? Can someone answer that?
Pandering to the witless "Fox educated" is what Ted does best
DeleteSome times I think Cruz is saying things like this just to play to his base and other times I think he believes this crap. To a degree I think he's been indoctrinated by his father to believe the theocratic side of his rants as well as the "they're coming to get us" from pappies time in Cuba.
ReplyDeleteThe guy is Ivy League educated though, how can you be so blind to how crazy all this crap sounds, he has to be playing games on some of it.
The one thing I do love is that Republicans will follow anyone if they say the right things. Can you believe the GOP types would vote for someone not born in this country? Just like they all love Carson, just like they love Piyush Jindal and Nimrata Haley though you know they wouldn't get within a mile of them if they didn't follow the Right-Wing script.
I hope the right comes to their senses but I fear I'll be long dead before that happens.
Put that to a loop of "Close Enounters" and "Tubular Bells", and I do believe Cruze has a future in music. Hey Ted, that brown stuff under your shoe, it's chocolate. Very good for your heart AND makes an excellent pomade to match your brain.
ReplyDeleteWalmart communique issued re: Operation Jade Helm 15!
ReplyDeletehttp://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/wal-mart-jade-helm-15
"Wal-Mart issued a statement Monday to TPM dismissing "rumors" that tunnels were being built by the U.S. military beneath closed stores in an attempt to launch a takeover of Texas.
"There’s no truth to the rumors," Wal-Mart spokesperson Lorenzo Lopez told TPM via email."
Reportedly Geraldo Rivera is on the way with ground penetrating radar to check things out.