Blogger predicts small-town festival will out-draw national protest
I’ve lived in Lyman, South Carolina, for 6 years now but so far I’ve not actually made it to Lymanfest, the annual town celebration. I tried to go one year, but I couldn’t find it (they never mention on the web site exactly where it is), and I’ll miss it again this year because I’ll be attending the Obot meetup in Philadelphia that weekend.
I feel pretty confident that Lymanfest will significantly out-draw the Obot meetup, but Operation American Spring I’m not sure about. I give Lymanfest the edge. All three events are scheduled at the same time.
Neither Operation American Spring nor Lymanfest is getting much media coverage beyond niche Internet sites and social networking. On Facebook, Lymanfest is trailing OAS by a considerable margin. The official OAS Facebook page has 5,611 “likes” as of this writing compared to 65 for Lymanfest. There are OAS splinter group pages (here and here) that are doing better.
I am trying to get estimates on Lymanfest attendance. The original claims from OAS organizer Col. Harry Riley (US Army ret.) said that there “1.8 million definite militia members” coming (reported Mother Jones back on January); however, that number has been called into question since it exceeds by several orders of magnitude the total number of militia members in the United States. The Vocativ web site published an informative article on OAS yesterday titled, “A Former Colonel Plans to Overthrow the U.S. Government on May 16,” subtitled, “The founder Of Operation American Spring is planning a million-man march on D.C. But will anyone show up?”
Unlike Lymanfest, which is a single-day event, Operation American Spring envisions persons camping out in the Capitol until President Obama, Eric Holder, and the Congressional leadership resigns. President Obama will leave office January 20, 2017.
My personal prediction is that Lymanfest will be the attendance winner. I don’t think that many Americans want to turn the United States into Egypt.
Update: The Washington Times reported OAS attendance at 300.
Doc, I just have a question that I’m curious about. Will you be covering the American Spring on this blog? If not, I’ll have to find some place where I can get my schadenfreude.
Oh, I see now that I’m not the only person on this thread mentioning it.
OAS is really just a catchall for the bigger community suffering from ODS…..
Expect a wide church of various conspiracies and other fedckwitology including much Argle-Bargle BENGHAZEEEEEE/MOOSLEM/DEATH-PANEL/LEAVE MY SOCIALIST MEDICARE ALONE etc etc
Birthing per se will be pretty small in numbers.
The only interesting part will be the inevitable and enjoyable incestuous fratricide as the varying “Troo Bulleevers” all start screaming at each other.
Face it, whenever 2 or 3 Birfoons gather together 4-5 mutually exclusive theories will be aired and fought over.
Lymanfest, you say? I think it’s fantastic that someone is finally holding a festival for Odie’s long-dead original owner. Yeah, Jim Davis never drew a body, but I think we all know what happened…
Altogether too true, and too funny as well. They are the only group that can’t say they are of two minds about something when there more voices than that competing in their heads.
To this aging Frenchman, the acronym OAS brings back memories of that other domestic terrorist organization…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Organisation_de_l%27arm%C3%A9e_secr%C3%A8te
I’m using this on my Facebook post. I’ll credit you.
“The original claims from OAS organizer Col. Harry Riley (US Army ret.) said that there “1.8 million definite militia members” coming (reported Mother Jones back on January), however that number has been called into question since it exceeds by several orders of magnitude the total number of militia members in the United States.” and let’s not forget, quite a few of them are on Bundy Ranch duty.
Well, I suppose they will try to replicate the partial success of KKKlayman’s November rally. After all, one of their demands was that Obama “put the Koran down”, and I haven’t seen Obama with a Koran in his hand ever since. 😉
“Operation American Spring envisions persons camping out in the Capitol until President Obama, Eric Holder, and the Congressional leadership resigns.”
What’s their “exit strategy”?
Declare victory and go home on May 17th?
They don’t have one gorefan, they say they are staying until Obama freaks out and leaves office (or they may have to take more desperate measures to get him to leave). Then they plan to run the government themselves and put George W. Bush back in office as a figure head.
Col. Riley is now claiming that 10 million people will show up, which is 15 times the population of D.C. The most-attended event ever in D.C. was Obama’s first inauguration, which was attended by 1.8 million people.
http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/operation-american-spring-leader-says-god-will-lead-millions-against-obamas-socialist-fascis
The “Truckers Ride for the Constitution” Facebook page had 123,000 likes and dozens of truckers actually showed up. Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert got 215,000 people to attend the “Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear” in 2010.
I see quite the business opportunity in Port-A-Potties.
If I believed one tenth of what Birfers claim, I’d quit my job and everyone I know to dedicate my life and my death to restoring constitutional rule; this is why I maintain that they don’t even believe their own crap. Their only goals are to delegitimize the president and to goad a lone wolf.
Not to show up in the first place.
And – thanks to the years gone by – today all which is left of the OAS are a good book and movie – “The Day of the Jackal”.
I’ve jammed that very line of reasoning at them before: “If you really believed America was in danger of annihilation, you’d be putting your life on the line to resist it. But you don’t. So either a) you don’t actually think that’s happening, or b) you’re a coward, not a patriot. So which is it?”
I somehow never get an answer, though. Not one that’s on topic anyway.
My pleasure to provide ….. 😎
My fave is still my haiku to Orly….
Sad Birfer Orly
Sanction NO Let me FEEENISH
Spider Eyes Weep Hate
Yeah that’s pretty much its only claim to fame.
Whereas birthers have brought a plethora of excuses for not showing up at their first big failfest, including “I’d have to sleep in the car” (yeah, sorry being a second George Washington is not a Hollywood dream), “I had to work” (on a Sunday?) and again “I had to work” (sure, this is why you post on birther sites 8 hours a day during working hours).
I’d also bet half the farm the majority of the “lock’n’load” crowd doesn’t even own a gun, or the wife has the keys to the locker, as these people couldn’t handle one without shooting own vital limbs off.
Orly has already announced that she won’t be attending The New Revolution due to some family obligation.
When in Philadelphia be sure to see the Mutter Museum — a great museum devoted to medical history: http://muttermuseum.org/
And you can bet they’d soil themselves, and become super compliant, at the sight of a secret service agent saying “Sir, you need to come with us!”
My guess is that Col. Riley doesn’t have much experience in logistics. Here is what he says:
There is not much time and the only planning necessary is to select a starting date, which we have done, and then show up in Washington, D.C. on that date, and plan to stay for the duration.
http://operationamericanspring.org/
That’s it? No discussion of how millions of people are supposed to get to Washington, where they are supposed to sleep. how they are going to be fed, where they will find bathroom facilities, etc.? Just show up and hope for the best, I suppose.
My guess is that her husband told her that, if she got herself arrested with a group of seditionist nutbars, she’d be obligated to post her own bail, without pledging any of the family assets.
The Texas splinter group is at least talking about sharing rides.
https://www.facebook.com/TexasWaveOAS
They’s Real Murricans. They don’t need none of that wussy Yoo-ro-peen logistification stuff, ‘cuz they gots Murrican Ingenuity™, and a can-do spirit.
The Facebook page for OAS has almost 4,000 “likes”.
I begin to see why they aren’t too concerned about logistics.
I guess they’re suppose to bring their own adult diaper-changing stations with them…
They will probably need at least two cars.
It’s a “security thang”: if they reveal their true numbers in advance, the Evil One will know how big of a military response to plan.
Headline on the Murdoch’s Melbourne paper today: SELFISH PESTS
They are complaining that the cost of clean-up, Police, and legal fees is is somewhere north of a $million after the Occupy Protests (how many years ago?).
The cleanup cost they are talking about can only be for cleaning up the horse poop (the Police use horses sometimes) and the traffic barriers. The Occupiers were fastidious in cleaning up the mess they made in Flagstaff Gardens.
The city was also sued for illegal eviction; they won but will end up paying the costs because the plaintiffs won’t be able to pay.
Will Murdoch be bleating about the OAS costs in a couple of years?
These guys claim they will be live streaming the event: https://www.facebook.com/marylandoas
Sounds like a pretty cushy job, since all they’ll need to do is duct-tape a single smartphone to a tree, and they’ll be able to capture everything.
I don’t think the Arab Spring people bothered much, either. Then again you know what the chances are that a bunch of racist old geezers stays in one place for more than one night, unless strippers or lynchings are involved…