Is this a joke?

Members of a group from outside Oregon arrived on Friday at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge to “secure a perimeter” around the compound and prevent “a Waco-style situation.”
The arrival of the “3% of Idaho” was the latest development in the situation outside Burns, where an armed occupation of the refuge by an Ammon Bundy-led militant group entered its seventh day.
“They just keep an eye on everything that is going on” to make sure “nothing stupid happens,” Bundy said Friday afternoon outside refuge headquarters.

The 3 percent of Idaho?  Is that, like, the identifier of the Idaho Democratic Party?

Curtiss and Chris McIntire, another group spokesman, called the situation a “double-edged sword” – the perimeter is meant to protect the occupiers from an outside attack but also to protect the Harney County community from those who arrive in solidarity with Bundy’s cause but may be prone to violence, they said. The Idaho group is here to keep the situation “peaceful” and reassure the community that it isn’t in danger, they said.

But what of the name?  Actually it segues to the, perhaps, elitist nature of right wing versus left-wing politics.  When the “left” marched out in protest, they declared themselves the “99 percent”, or perhaps “with the 99 percent“.  (The South Park spoof on the whole Occupy ends with

The protests eventually fall apart, as the 99% and 83% are replaced by various smaller percentages, according to a reporter, who then rushes away when he is informed that protestors are now “occupying” a Macaroni Grill.

which is kind of where we get to this weird “3 percent” thing).

So, here it’s the idea that, oh, something like only 3 percent of the people care about liberty, and are willing to take a stand for liberty, before it is too late.

Things get more complicated in that the “3 percent of Idaho” uses roman numerals in their logo, so it looks like they’re claiming to be the 111 percent of Idaho.

We begin with Webster Tarpley, whose admirers are circulating the “bottom half of the Internet” to let everyone know Webster Tarpley has exposed ISIS as a CIA plot to de-stabilize the Mid-East…

Have a look at what Dr.Webster Tarpley has to say oon the creation of ISIS that it is an American secret army created to de-stabilise the middle east. Dr.Tarpley is an American historian and broadcaster with his own radio show.

And, we have an intriguing conspiratorial battling line amongst erst-while friends– forces out on twitter…  differing opinions regarding the stand-off in Burns, Oregon.  See here Webster Tarpley’s twitter feed.

#Bundy fanatics join Oregon armed gangs to privatize lands owned by American people-Will #Trump or #Cruz back them? http://www.oregonlive.com/pacific-northwest-news/index.ssf/2016/01/drama_in_burns_ends_with_quiet.html#incart_big-photo …

#Fascism is armed gangs of storm troopers-Are #OR militia the right wing of #Trump & #Cruz? If not let #GOP condemn them-#OregonUnderAttack

Kid-glove treatment for #Mormon #BundyMilitia in #Burns #OR exposes them as pampered #FalseFlag darlings of #FBI #Yallqaeda #YokelHaram

And on this… It’s Webster Tarpley versus Kurt Nimmo!

Kurt Nimmo expounds his view with this cutesy image — showing what it is that is going on.  Yes.  Andrew Jackson and George Washington weep, man on the bench represents either Bundy or the Oregon rancher or the Average American, and Obama looks on, Consitution under foot.

As for the big “gatekeeper” con, the Alex Jones universe (which has been plugging about Trump with a fervor almost akin to how they used to plug along with Ron Paul) — always watching what the right wing (and I guess we’re calling Trump right wing?) avatars are saying to keep the rowdies in line.  Trump: he’d tell #Bundy “You gotta get out.” Feds have zero authority over the states. http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/donald-trump-solve-oregon-militia …

It has been a while since Webster Tarpley has made the rounds on the Alex Jones Show.  Is there fricture as Tarpley moves out to the wacko left while Jones and Nimmo stick to the wacko right?  Who can say?

………… —- Odd little tidbit, from Webster Tarpley’s Barack H Obama: The UnAuthorized Biography, published 2008… page 413

Even before Obama’s “bittergate” remarks in San Francisco, the acerbic Spengler of Asia Times had diagnosed Obama’s method of profiling and manipulating the American people…

STORY NUMBER TWO
Huh?  Oh, footnote in what appears to be a footnote of a story that mostly calls into question further concerns for when information online needs to be private.

Ac­cord­ing to cam­paign spend­ing data, Na­tion Build­er’s biggest cli­ents in the cur­rent elec­tion cycle are the Mas­sachu­setts Re­pub­lic­an Party, Rep. Dav­id McKin­ley of West Vir­gin­ia, and the Lyn­don La­Rouche Polit­ic­al Ac­tion Com­mit­tee—which is as­so­ci­ated with the con­tro­ver­sial con­spir­acy the­or­ist and per­en­ni­al pres­id­en­tial can­did­ate.

And ballot decisions come to the fore, one of the foot-notey legacies of the Lyndon Larouche Movement’s electoral campaigns.  How Lyndon Larouche is benefiting the presidential campaign of Donald Trump.

Husted cited a 1981 law barring candidates who are affiliated with a political party from appearing without partisan affiliation on a statewide ballot. Trump officially filed for Ohio’s Republican primary on Friday, seemingly triggering the law. However, as Ballot Access News pointed out in the wake of Husted’s announcement, the law Husted is citing in order to keep Trump off the ballot has been enforced selectively at best. For starters, white nationalist and all around crazy person Lyndon LaRouche appeared on the state’s general election ballot in 1984, 1988 and 1992 as an independent despite having filed for the Democratic nomination all three of those years.
In other words, Ohio is planning on being less accommodating to Trump, who only walks up to the line of being a fascist white supremacist, than it was for one of our nation’s most well-known fascist white supremacists. If Trump is looking for evidence that he’s being treated unfairly, there it is.

STORY NUMBER THREE
Oh, the horrors of being a congressional staff, having to deal with this guy 23 times…

Q: Mr. LaRouche, this is B— from Fair Oaks, Sacramento County, and I was interested in the 25th Amendment and a rapid removal of President Obama, as President Nixon was removed, and I’ve seen it can happen in one day, coming from the top people from the Democratic Party in this case, as it was done in the case of President Nixon. How can this come about and the right people not make the excuses and denials as I come across?
Where we live, in our district, the 7th Congressional District, Congressman Dr. Ami Bera answers like a lawyer, just picks stuff apart and denies there ever was treason or any reason for Obama to be impeached or removed by the 25th Amendment,—that’s just a field caseworker for this guy. I’ve gone 23 times to that office, and they’re just liars, and deniers; it’s useless. So I’d like to know, how could it happen?

Larouche answers?

I’ve also seen my dearest friends assassinated in various parts of the planet; and those assassinations tell me exactly what the problem is. Why were they killed? Like Indira Gandhi; why was she murdered by the British? Why? Because she was a genius; and genius is what these guys specify as a target for killing. Indira Gandhi; that’s not the only case. There are many cases of leading figures who were assassinated; again and again. De Gaulle was not assassinated; but he was virtually assassinated before he died. Because the fascist party, which is called the Socialist Party in France, is the force of evil. Obama is the force of evil.
And therefore, the question is, if you’ve got an option, you better do something about it quickly; because the forces of Satan will gather quickly, exterminate you, and then go back to business as they were doing it before. Unity; the force of unity, is the secret of humanity.

Story Number Four
Looky see what’s a’happening on Wikipedia.

Deleted Wikipedia edit for “Larouche Movement”:  Even more so, they have a group of “Fundraisers, see: Telemarketers” that will call you and yell and swear at you if you don’t buy into or wholeheartedly glom onto all of their tinfoil hat conspiracy theories.

For six months, LaRouche worked with American Healyite leader [[Tim Wohlforth]], who later wrote that LaRouche had a “gargantuan ego,” and “a marvelous ability to place any world happening in a larger context, which seemed to give the event additional meaning, but his thinking was schematic, lacking factual detail and depth.” Leaving Wohlforth’s group, LaRouche briefly joined the rival [[Spartacist League]] before announcing his intention to build a new “Fifth International.” ref name=Wohlforth>{{harvnb|Wohlforth}}, undated. /ref

Other decisions:  partially, the line about his “brilliance” is clearly biased but his status as convicted felon is not defining enough to merit the first line of his bio.

STORY NUMBER FIVE
Press TV headlines?
US moves in Asia to bring about ‘nuclear holocaust,’ activist says
 Themo-nuclear holocaust. Sounds pretty dramatic. You know what else sounds dramatic? Is all the talk of removing Obama from office since like, Day 1 in his office… You people are clowns at ABSOLUTE best…

STORY NUMBER SIX.
Talk about Under the Radar!
Kansas Cattlemen’s Association to host convention in Dodge City
9 a.m.—”US Economy, New World Development Paradigm…Or Bust,” a presentation with Bob Baker of the Executive Intelligence Review, reveals the dependence of derivatives effect on U.S. economic viability.
Looky here, looky there.

STORY NUMBER SEVEN
At the 3 minute mark, Martin O’Malley — who is on the bubble for the next Demcoratic Debate now — gets some rare joking coverage by Stephen Colbert.
A citation polls from the story about Lyndon Larouche’s endorsement of Martin O’Malley — see 3 minute mark.
What does this mean?  Did the producers of the Stephen Colbert story merely look up Martin O’Malley on google and see that story?  Were they considering doing a comedy news commentary about this story, but decided it wasn’t relevant enough?  Was this just an additional gag for those paying attention?
Formulation from fightapathy at factnet:  Larouche Was Right.  But now O’Malley Is Right.  Larouchies to dump Larouche and back O’Malley now.

STORY NUMBER EIGHT.  Tarpley excited by Obama?
Webster Tarpley twitter feed…   #Obama #WhiteHouse embraces #TaxWallStreetParty strategy for destroying #ISIS #Daesh by shutting 98km (60 miles) gap
#TaxWallStreetParty makes history-#Obama #WhiteHouse embraces our plan to destroy #ISIS by closing 98km corridor on #Syria–#Turkish border!

STORY NUMBER NINE
Yesterday Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders and Martin O’Malley were forced to bow out as candidates for the Presidency, after the trio were found involved in sexual relations together (which the majority of Americans voted was totally gross). This dramatic turn of events rocked the Democrats, as they struggled to think of a quality candidate to replace them.
It was announced this morning that the 93 year old serial Democratic contender, Lyndon LaRouche, would accept his Party’s nomination for president of the United States.
Mr LaRouche has informed the XYZ that he plans to tackle the “Venetian-Dutch-British system” head on by nationalising the banks, oil, water, gas and raw materials. He has stated he will build particle beam weapons and lasers to destroy narco-crops and banking institutions laundering its monetary proceeds.
He further stated he’ll use these particle beam weapons to assassinate leading “oligarchy” figures like Queen Elizabeth and Henry Kissinger (who apparently are seeking to spread AIDS and the bubonic plague).
Frankly I can’t wait to see Mr. LaRouche go head to head with Donald Trump in a debate.

STORY NUMBER TEN.  Clinton surrogates versus Sanders surrogates with Larouchies shouting from the audience.  (Do they count as O’Malley surrogates?)

But there were some highly charged moments, especially when a young white activist apparently involved with the notorious Lyndon LaRouche movement started shouting questions to the surrogates on stage, such as: “What are you going to do to stop the drones from killing people and the World War III instigator and mass-murdering dictator Obama?”
That one seemed to surprise and fluster Eldridge a bit. She turned to the panel and asked: “Do you want to answer the question — quickly?”
Tony Hoffmann, from the Village Independent Democrats club who had welcomed the audience from the outset with fellow V.I.D.’er Marti Speranza, could be heard saying that the activist’s question “doesn’t deserve an answer.”
Nevertheless, Wright gave it a try.
“Let’s not forget that George Bush got us into this war. Let me finish, thank you very much,” he added sardonically as other angry voices intruded. “One of the first things I learned in school was that when we get into wars, the economy is supposed to get better. Well, George Bush got us into two wars and the economy got worse. Whether you disagree with how our president is handling this — that’s your opinion.”
Eldridge ended that discussion after Wright’s comments.
“I think that’s enough. All of the other members on the dais approve of most of the things in the Obama administration,” she said, as several people in the audience clapped.
Then the straw poll began. When it concluded, people began filing out of the auditorium and into the street from an exit door near the stage. Several lingered to talk to the panel, among them the aforementioned activist, who carried a placard showing an image of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. The words on it said: “We Need FDR!”

Oakland.  And.  Boston.

OMG – I had not noticed that Obama grew a Hitler moustache. When did he do that? Very ballsy moustache choice!

.

November 8.  And Presidential Elect Donald Trump walks up to the podium and stadium full of the excited cheerful.

“I have an announcement to make.  This was all supposed to be a joke.  I have billions of dollars, and decided what the hell, I’ll spend it on on one giant joke — see how far this one goes.  Frankly I thought I’d peter out somewhere around November of last year.  I mean, did you hear some of the bullshit I was saying then?  It was a challenge to just keep upping the ante, and…

God, I thought the final straw would be my vice presidential pick.  Ammon Bundy?  Really, could I have picked someone more wack-a-doodle from this weird right wing fan base I’ve courted?

Well.  Here I am.  President Elect.  Geez, now what, America?  I’ll get to work… Make America Great Again and all that bullshit.  Go back over effectively my acting performances from my reality tv series… sure, sure… ‘You’re Fired’ — that’s all I have to do to handle Kim Jong-un…”

I hate to say this, because it doesn’t really affect policy, attitudes toward the vast entity, or what the where is going on, but this statistic… currently being cited in news releases about the big stand-off of a bunch of Bundys and canned food enthusiasts out near Burns, Oregon, confusing the locals…

The number of anti-government militia groups nationwide grew 37% last year, up from 202 in 2014 to 276, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks such groups.

I have no freaking clue what that statistic means.  202 to 276.  Near as they explain…

Well, you know, Amy, the number of militia groups, the number of extremist antigovernment groups, has really skyrocketed since Barack Obama took office in 2009. There was a bit of waning between 2011 and 2013, but in the last couple of years we’ve seen a big increase, particularly in the number of militia groups—as you said, from about 200 to about 275. And this, I think it can be traced directly to what happened at the Cliven Bundy ranch, that you mentioned, in April of 2014.

Yeah, and during that dry-spell, 2011 to 2013, the SPLC talked about heightened concerns because the fall-off spelled more militancy in the remnants.  What’s a batch of 74 throughout the middle West about to do that it wouldn’t have  with 74 fewer…

Meanwhile, they stand-offees are blasting “hope this ain’t another Waco”.  Sure.  They can only hope to be that “important”…

As per my annual habit, I take a look at the late, last week or maybe second to last week play-off scenarios for the NFL, and take some merry amusement at whatever line of absurdism springs forth.

This year.  The AFC South title, and with it the 4-seed in the AFC playoffs, remains undecided.  Kind of.  Going into the final week of the season, there’s a two team race between

8-7 Houston Texans
7-8 Indianapolis Colts

The Texans are “in control of their own destiny”, and indeed failing a win would need half of the week 17 schedule to go against them to fail to make the play-offs.

The Colts need half the schedule to go their way to make the playoffs.  There are three paths to the playoffs, all predicated on this slate of games going their way.

(1) Colts beat Titans
(2) Jaguars beat Texans
(3) Ravens beat Bengals
(4) Dolphins beat Patriots
(5) Bills beat Jets
(6) Broncos beat Chargers
(7) Falcons beat Saints

After all that, their best chance to make the play-offs is with

(8) Steelers beat Browns
(9) Raiders beat Chiefs

Then they’re in!  But… and this is where things get amusing…

IF the Browns beat the Steelers  OR… the Chiefs beat the Raiders…

The Colts would make the playoffs if they overtake the current gap in conference rank for points scored and points allowed, which currently sits at a 83 point gap, meaning… oh… the Colts would need to beat the Titans and the Jaguars beat the Texans by an average of 42 points each game.

One more thing: the Colts’s starting, back-up, and 3rd string quarterbacks (for the season) are all out with injuries.

And then there were… 12.

Former New York Gov. George Pataki dropped out of the 2016 Republican presidential race Tuesday evening, continuing the winnowing of the huge GOP field and eliminating another long shot hopeful from the party’s centrist establishment wing.

He made the announcement on NBC affiliates in Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina at 9 p.m. EST, using the last of the free airtime he had received from the network to settle an “equal time” dispute over front-runner Donald Trump having hosted “Saturday Night Live.”

Which is maybe the only interesting tidbit, footnotey that it is, about the 2016 presidential campaign of George Pataki.  Equal time dealings when one of the candidates does the big comedy show hosting.

Although he had a credible resume as the successful governor for more than a decade of one of the nation’s largest states,

Leaving aside the bias in this here Washington Times… he just couldn’t past that draw-back of being successful at a political job for an extended period of time.

The question that Pataki’s dropping out beggers.

New Hampshire State Sen. Nancy Stiles, a steering committee member for Mr. Pataki’s political action committee, would tell The Washington Times only that she received a phone call from the former governor Tuesday and that he wished her a happy new year.

Who will heavy-weight Republican king-maker Nancy Stiles now throw her considerable support in backing?