Some of our younger readers may find this hard to believe, but for much of the 1990s, President Clinton's Republican critics had some deeply strange conspiracy theories involving the United Nations.
I never could wrap my head around the nuttiness, but the gist of the argument was that Bill Clinton opposed American sovereignty, wanted to create a one-world government, and had a secret plan to hand over control to the United Nations, which apparently would invade American communities in black helicopters.
It was as ridiculous at the time as it appears in retrospect, but the right seriously pushed this nonsense for years. Apparently, now that there's another Democratic president, a similar nuttiness has resurfaced.
Ian Millhiser posted this clip of Tom Head, a county judge in Lubbock, Texas, who shared a unique perspective on his local Fox affiliate. For those who can't watch clips online:
"[President Obama] is going to try to hand over the sovereignty of the United States to the U.N. Okay, what's going to happen when that happens? I'm thinking worst case scenario here. Civil unrest, civil disobedience, civil war maybe. We're not just talking a few riots here and demonstrations. We're talking Lexington-Concord take up arms and get rid of the guy.
"Now what's going to happen if we do that, if the public decides to do that? He's going to send in U.N. troops -- with the little blue beanies. I don't want 'em in Lubbock County. Okay. So I'm going to stand in front of their armored personnel carrier and say, 'You're not coming in here.' And the sheriff, I've already asked him, I said, 'You gonna back me?' He said, 'Yeah, I'll back you.'"
There's no evidence this guy was kidding.
Did I mention he's a judge? I wonder whether those who appear in Tom Head's courtroom have confidence that he'll be fair, level-headed, and impartial in his judicial responsibilities.
I've generally found it hard to relate to the most extreme elements of anti-Obama hatred on the right, in large part because I've never fully understood what it is he's done that enrages them. At least in this case, he hasn't done anything -- except inspire fear that beanie-wearing U.N. troops will arrive in Lubbock County in armored personnel carriers.
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What in tarnation is going on with these loonies anyway? Don't they get out in the real world at all? Anybody with even a smidgen of common sense would know that the U.N. doesn't care about Lubbock or would even care how they read their water meters, tied their shoelaces, etc. Isn't this sedition or even treason? Maybe these guys need some real black helicopters to visit them so they can spend some time in Guantanamo and sort things out with their Taliban buddies.
Yep!NASA's curiosity rover is living up to expectation.Just two weeks or so after a successful landing,it already discovered an alien county.I'd suggest that the men in black go there.
It'd be funny if he wasn't an elected official.
This is just the result of the Republican party simply being the worst elements of the risen McCarthyites, the John Birch Society, the remains of the smoldering ruins of the Goldwater campaign, white supremacists, kook unfettered market absolutists, and Bible thumpers. I don't actually think this is new. They've just been unleashed because of the Great Recession and a minority President. It's not easy to kill the zombies.
It's incredible to find so many Americans so fu king nuts.
What you fail to understand is this is about promoting "fear" by the right. The bible & guns crowd are afraid of change & everything in their world is changing and in their opinion its not for the better! These people believe in "authoritarianism" and by-golly everyone else needs to believe as they do or else! Their fears have been manipulated since those towers came down in NYC 11 years ago - and now all they see are monsters under the bed!
Oh yes, very much so. And the creators and producers of the Wingnut Show are all to willing to give them all the fear-mongering they can and hope it doesn't result in something uncontrollable. Hence we get the great Romney Welfare Lie of campaign 2012 to add to all the anti-Obama nonsense of the last four years.
Not only is his theory nutty, but his proposed response is also moronic. If what he fears were true, and he and his fellow wing-nut buddy the sheriff stood in front of that hypothetical tank, my guess is the tank would just run their dumb asses over and keep on moving. But I suppose they'd have made their point, right? (eyeroll)
Vulture/Voucher 2012
Proving Two Rights DO Make a Wrong!
;-)
Actually this is a pretty ingrained belief on the fringes of the right and it relates to their belief about the end of times. The belief is that the anti-christ will rise to power not through US politics, but rather through the UN. It is from the UN platform that the anti-christ will spread his message of peace and love before ultimately bringing us under the rule of one government (subsequently he will eliminate the free market and allow only government control of everything). He will, of course, then appoint himself as the head of this universal government and then supposedly he will make the world suffer his wrath. When they state that the United States is a christian nation what they are saying is that this country has been made a world power specifically as a buffer between the anti-christ and his rise to power. They firmly believe that when the United States fails this will be the last major event before christ returns to earth. That's why all of the far right militia groups practice for the end of days and refer to themselves as christ's warriors and what not. They literally believe that they will join christ and fight to take down the anti-christ. It gets even nuttier: the anti-christ's location of power is supposedly in Europe (hence their hatred of Europe), but the anti-christ himself will likely be Russian or Chinese. You can even find websites discussing this belief system in which they've mapped out the "safe" locations here in America to bunker down and protect yourself against the impending UN invasion. This is also why they stockpile weapons (in general) and have been doing so more fervently in fear of a weapons ban (because if the ban goes into place they won't be armed for armageddon).
The whole attitude about America not bowing down to other countries and making other countries conform to American "ideals" (I put in quotes since, of course, this is subjective) stems from this belief too. We must always put up a strong front so that when the anti-christ comes to power he will know that we are here to fight him (or something). Additionally this is also why socialism is bad, communism is bad, the UN is bad, gun control is bad, and why abortion is bad. This is also why war is good because it prepares warriors for the impending christian war.
Cartoon's got it. In the end times, satan (anyone the hard right disagrees with that gets elected in spite of all their efforts, both legal and otherwise) apparently will unite all nations under a one world government. I've never read the bible because I prefer science fiction to fantasy novels, but I'm pretty sure the UN never specifically comes up. It's the closest thing to a one world government that's ever existed though, so I guess the crazy fools take what they can get?
John Birch Society... My cousin sadly is one of these, I like to call him once a month to piss him off. I always identify myself as "Hello this is the Communist!"
lol
Yeah they think that Obama is connected to the Illuminati, but also a communist and that Hitler was related to the Rockefeller family. Why they would worry about Hitler's family being fascists themselves I have not got out of him yet. He is thinks that Obama wants to sign the UN small arms treaty is actual to over turn the 2nd amendment.
All of the stuff can be debunked on snopes in 5 mins ore less. That is the thing about being crazy once you start you can't stop yourself, just look at the GOP. How far they have come, Nixon founded the EPA....
This should make his head spin. Do a little work with Google. Both Rick Santorum and Scallia are both members of the Illuminati.
Seriously.
Help Robert Anton Wilson we need you!
http://www.rawilson.com/home.html
ADMINZ! -
Does your cousin think his phone's tapped? (Btw, these days, like everyone else's, it probably is.) In some way, that makes your regular greeting to him even funnier. (Not that the phone tapping issue itself is particularly funny at all...)
Vulture/Voucher 2012
Proving Two Rights DO Make a Wrong!
;-)
POTUS is a Democrat that got elected; speaks in full comprehensible sentences which smack of education and is, therefore, obviously an elitist who is gonna take away their guns & ammo. What's next - country music & okra?
Apparently, that's all it takes. Indocrination begins at personhood (you know when your father (or whoever) starts thinking about ummmm, you know, with your mother) and continues through all that home schooling (don't want any outside influence getting through! All that science claptrap might give 'em ideas.)
So it really doesn't matter who the person is - just have to be a Democratic President (except for those times when it is a black man or god forbid a woman! OMG!) to get their juices churning and awaken the seeds planted the day before conception!
In other words, they a bred this way and then nutured lest they forget. Kinda like, oh, I don't know, maybe the Taliban or Al Quaeda. Oh, the Jesuits are good at this kind of brainwashing too; just with a different agenda.
Never never land is never far away from the republican/tea party.In fact many,many of them are already there.Peter and Wendy are waiting for the rest,and wo'nt have to wait long.
I love how this has been filed..PERFECT LOL
Rachel, you need to understand that in Texas a County Judge is not a Judge in the legal system, rather he is the top elected official in the County and is the executive officer of the county government, which is a MUCH bigger deal in Texas than in most other states in the Union. Counties in Texas are presided over by what is known as a county court. This, IMHO makes it worse.
That's correct. A Texas county judge is the head County Commissioner, in charge of county administration and budget. A county judge is elected by the whole county at large, and this guy is, unfortunately, probably a fair representative of many of the voters in Lubbock County, Texas.
The reasons people like this hate and fear Obama are mostly the same reasons that people who like Obama like him:
He's black.
He's a Democrat.
He's well-educated and very intelligent.
He speaks in complete sentences.
He's very even-tempered.
He's a devoted family man.
And so on. But being black is the real deal-breaker for most Obama-haters.
" . . . What he's done that enrages them."
It isn't what he's done that angers Republicans. It's what he IS. He's B-L-A-C-K, he's a Democrat, and he's the President.
Since Republicans held the presidency for 28 of the previous 40 years before Obama, they've come to believe that they have a devine right to that office. And if a Democrat is (through illegitimate means, of course) "elected" President, it absolutely CAN'T be someone of color.
What I would like is not only a second Obama term, but for the next president to be a Chinese-American married lesbian who is a convert to Judaism, who also serves two terms. You think right-wingers are crazy now? I'm sure they can get crazier. There hasn't been a white male Secretary of State since 1997. Unless Republicans win total power this year, we can easily go through an extended period of no white men in the White House. And we'd be better for the experience.
These ignorant people are still in Pennsylvania too. They are sure that allowing municipalities to share office supply costs is part of the great UN conspiracy. <rolling eyes>.
Damn, that is some over-the-top, laugh out loud "teh crazy."
Oh, GOODY!! The Black Helicopter Conspiracies again!!! Frankly, except for the Coast Guard dauphins, they all look black to me!!!
Just to clarify one thing: this guy doesn't have a courtroom. In Texas (and some other states), a "county judge" is an elected executive officer, sort of like the chairman of the county commission. County judges don't try cases or preside over courtrooms, and most aren't even lawyers. (I don't know about this Tom Head guy.) This doesn't lessen the nuttiness of his black helicopter fantasies, but basically he's an elected county official who is in charge of running a few county services (mainly "emergency management") and presiding over the meetings of the county commissioners. Thankfully he won't be trying any cases.
In many ways, that strikes me as even worse. First, that he is in charge of anything. Second, that one of those things is emergency management, which actually makes his paranoia relevant. And third, that it means a whole bunch of people had to cast their votes him and presumably think like he does. Shudder.
We're talking Lexington-Concord take up arms and get rid of the guy.
From Wikipedia - "Sedition is the stirring up of rebellion against the government in power."
Is this not sedition?
Who can tell anymore, when we're all standing in front of the 24/7 Fox Sh*t Fan blowing endless crap across our eyes, our minds, our nation.
These guys are in Oregon, Nevada and Idaho, too. Obama is comin' for your guns, Obama's a Commie, Obama's this, that and the other. But, anyway, I wish Molly Ivins was still here to take a big ole whack at these good ole boys. And I remember the black helicopter whimperings about Clinton; something that juicy is always fun to re-animate into Showdown at the Obama Re-election Corral time.
It's Texas, it's in the air and water there. I don't know how the people in Austin and Houston survive.
Being from that part of the state and now living in Houston, I could not get out of there fast enough...
People from these parts are simpletons (I am seriosuly not trying not to use this word negatively as I would include some of my family in this category). They simply focue on their families and do not get involved in politics, do not question authority and just cast an ignorant vote. So, it is always the white, good ole boys who are heavily involved in politics in these parts and cling to power as they have had in Texas since it's inception.
RuhRoh
They remind me of that quote from Blazing Saddles
" You've got to remember that these are just simple farmers. These are people of the land. The common clay of the new West. You know... morons."
Except our morons haven't been so easily won over by our black 'sheriff'.
The great irony here is that he is using this to justify raising their taxes to bear the cost of arms and defense!!!!
This same man in a meeting with city/county emergency planners said that the we should prepare for JIHAD in Lubbock!!! What an idiot. He's the one who posted the insulting pictures of Obama..... posted them in his official capacity... in the county courthouse three years ago. At the public hearing today on the budget, he tried unsuccessfully to close down the hearing as soon as the Democrat on the commission apologized on behalf of the county for the judge's comments. He fled the meeting out the back door to avoid the press.
This is the same man that in 2009 posted insulting pictures and comments IN HIS CAPACITY as county judge… IN THE COURTHOUSE…. he's the same man that in a city/county emergency planning meeting said we need to plan for JIHAD in Lubbock. There was a public hearing on the budget today, and he tried to close it down after the Democratic county commissioner apologized on behalf of the citizens of the county for the judge's remarks…. his efforts failed. The Judge fled the meeting room out a back door to avoid the crush of press when the meeting was ended. The press people and other commissioners [and the outgoing REPUBLICAN chair] expressed derision at the judge's comments.
sorry for the double post… got confused by the registration process.
Also, the sheriff did NOT say he'd support the judge on this issue… the sheriff [the D county commissioner checked with him personally] said he'd support the judge on the issue of raising more money for policing in the out-of-city-limits portions of the county where the population is exploding. Sheriff is mad as hell. The other commissioner in the video is embarrassed and spent an hour after the meeting trying to make it clear he had NOTHING to do with this statement by Tom Head.
Head is a "Christian" Right politician… elected on that platform… he's the only tea party supporter on the court…. [county courts in Texas are actually the LEGISLATIVE branch of county government]…. the R candidate for one seat up this year IS a tea party man, a supporter of Head. Faces a very very weak Democratic nominee
Tom Head is petrified by the fact that the county is now almost 45 percent NON WHITE, and the schools are 2-1 non white. He's afraid his old fogey group will lose out,and imagines any conspiracy the mind of man can devise to explain why that group is losing demographic predominance. BTW, in the county only 15% of voters are non white. But of course the REAL REASON the non whites are such a big portion of the population is that the money bag entrepreneurs and big famers BROUGHT THEM HERE todo cheap labor, … now they're scared stiff "those people' [as one speaker at the court said this morning in support of Head] that "those people" might actually expect the same consideration as citizens as the rest of the population.
statement by Lubbock Party Democratic chair
Empty braggadacio, he's no Tiananmen Square tank man, whom I hold as one of the bravest human beings alive today, actually did stand in front of armoured vehicles without first bragging about doing it on a Fox News affiliate.
The New Hate is the same as the Old Hate with the difference being that the New Hate is out in the open.
Not only has the John Birch Society returned, but it is more influential than it ever was in the 60s. It isn't just an obscure whackp like this. I believe I saw that 30+ state Republican Party Platforms have anti-Agenda 21 planks. (Agenda 21 is a non-binding resolution urging sustainability -- signed by Bush 41 -- that the JBS has transformed into a 'blueprint for the take-over of America' that they blame Obama for.)
I would be highly surprised if the final GOP Platform at the convention does not mention Agenda 21 -- something the 'fluoridation plot' never achieved.
Sometimes a country chief executive is called a "county judge." That may be what this kook is.
(Mitch McConnell, before he became the Worst Senator in the Universe, was County Judge for Jefferson Country in Keytucky.)
Edit: OK, I just read some previous comments and it seems I was scooped on the judge/executive thing. Still, you learned McConnell was a "judge" so there is that. :-0