Will Donald Trump shut up now?

[HoreTore]

Well, since I made a complete fool of myself in another thread we shall never mention again, what better way than to start another one about another circus clown, Donald Trump?

Obama's birth certificate released.

Will Trump and the rest of the deranged birthers now finally shut the hell up? Or will we hear desperate cries of 'obvious photoshop is obvious'?

Finally, what was the reason for all this nonsense? I've never quite understood why this issue was pushed at all. I can understand the PR Trump got by bringing it up, but what about the rest? Did some people actually believe that this could cause Obama to resign?

Please, if anyone has some insights into these peoples motives, do enlighten me.

[Lemur]

Unlikely. Conspiracy theorists are remarkably immune to evidence and reason. And that's not limited to birthers; truthers and ZOG conspiracists all seem to suffer from the same malady.

[CrossLOPER]

Will Trump and the rest of the deranged birthers now finally shut the hell up?

Nope.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-13212230

Please, if anyone has some insights into these peoples motives, do enlighten me.

Nope.

[Lemur]

Regarding the thread title, apparently Donald Trump is a huge American hero for raising this nonissue in the first place:

"I've accomplished something that nobody else has been able to accomplish," Trump said in the political bellwether state of New Hampshire, which will host an early 2012 Republican Party nominating contest.

"I was just informed while on the helicopter that our president has finally released a birth certificate. I want it look at it, but I hope it's true."

"I am really honoured, frankly, to have played such a big role in getting rid of this issue.

"We have to see is it real, is it proper, what's on it. But I hope it checks out beautifully. I am really proud."

[Lemur]

Ah, that didn't take long:

Phil Berg, who filed one of the original birther lawsuits, now believes that Obama was adopted by his Indonesian father and lost his U.S. citizenship:

“I think the issue is that he’s not any more natural born. I don’t care if he releases his birth certificate or whatever,” said Berg. “Let’s see his records coming back through immigration”

Orly Taitz, once called ‘Queen of the birthers’ and who was responsible for a number of lawsuits, says she is verifying the document’s authenticity and now believes that the president is using a false social security number.

[HoreTore]

Unlikely. Conspiracy theorists are remarkably immune to evidence and reason. And that's not limited to birthers; truthers and ZOG conspiracists all seem to suffer from the same malady.

Great Lemur the Poll Smoker, do you have any insights into these peoples motivation? I've never understood just why they've kept this circus going....

[Ronin]

that was a mistake on Obama's part....you don´t give attention to idiots.

just makes them act up more.

[Lemur]

Great Lemur the Poll Smoker, do you have any insights into these peoples motivation? I've never understood just why they've kept this circus going....

Hmm. I would say that each conspiracy theorist is different. People who think the moon landings were faked are very different from people who think that vaccines give children autism. I dunno if there's a broad statement you can make about conspiracy theorists that would be true for all. They share traits with the clinically paranoid, though; a deep-seated belief that everything makes sense on some level, and that nothing is random. In a way they're kinda cute and pitiable -- they refuse to recognize how much of life, history and Great Events are predicated on luck and chaos theory.

Birthers are obviously invested in seeing President 44 as illegitimate, "the usurper," as I've heard some call him. This could be based in a few different things, such as sour grapes over losing an election, plain old racism, a tendency to believe conspiracies in general, or any number of causes.

I have noticed that people who hold extreme political views tend to believe that since they have latched onto the Ultimate Truth, it doesn't make sense that so few others believe their Ultimate Truth. This leads to more conspiracy theories. The Media is covering their truth up, for example, or fluoride in the water has led to brainwashing of the masses (conspiracy theorists love to call everyone who isn't in the clique "sheeple," a fast tip-off for when you're dealing with a nutter).

You could make a case that the hard right has formed such an impermeable shell of mutual beliefs and self-reinforcing media groups (see "epistemic closure") that the notion of a majority of Americans voting for a candidate who does not conform to their belief system is unthinkable, impossible, and must be explained away by other means.

I have no poll data to back any of this up. Just thinking out loud.

[PanzerJaeger]

Amazing. I cannot believe he felt the need to do this. An American president backed into a corner by reality TV star Donald Trump?

Personally, I'd rather see the college records - and specifically how he managed to get into Harvard (AA?). Maybe if the Donald mentions them on Celebrity Apprentice, the prez will feel obligated.

[Jolt]

Amazing. I cannot believe he felt the need to do this. An American president backed into a corner by reality TV star Donald Trump?

For a man on ran his campaign on greater transparency, I'm not that surprised, tbh.

[drone]

I'm more interested in finding out what species of animal is currently residing on Donald Trump's cranium.

[Rhyfelwyr]

Nice to see Mr. Trump does other things with his time that spouting some patriotic feel good crap about how he loves his homeland and likes to show it by forcing people off their land to build luxury golf resorts.

Anyway, this might have been a good move by the Obamination. Birtherism was kind of mainstream, this may relegate it to the really hardcore right-wing fringe.

[gaelic cowboy]

Five euro says that within two hours the web was full of DNAer's posting thread titles on how an Obama was born in Hawaii but is it the current Prez?? we need a DNA test now.

In fact I seen summit like it in the NOTW thread before

http://www.westernjournalism.com/its...stigate-obama/

[Populus Romanus]

I don't see why the heck he did not just release it in the first place. Seriously, he released it now, so he obviously had nothing to fear this entire time. I simply cannot comprehend what his reasoning was.

[Lemur]

[gaelic cowboy]

[gaelic cowboy]

I don't see why the heck he did not just release it in the first place. Seriously, he released it now, so he obviously had nothing to fear this entire time. I simply cannot comprehend what his reasoning was.

His reasoning is the same as any American would have been, to actually give in to this stuff just shows how stupid the debate is at the minute in the USA. The country facing huge debts and a myraid other problems but all Trump wants to see is Obama's birth cert, Obama should ask for Trump's wigmaker for crimes against humanity.

[Louis VI the Fat]

I don't see why the heck he did not just release it in the first place. Seriously, he released it now, so he obviously had nothing to fear this entire time. I simply cannot comprehend what his reasoning was.

His reasoning is the rightwing point scoring below:

I cannot believe he felt the need to do this. An American president backed into a corner by reality TV star Donald Trump?

As for me, I'm with Obama: he is a man in charge of serious affairs. The less time and public energy devoted to nonsense the better.
Not that this will change anything. The loony right will simply move on to their next campaign. Some out of conviction, others because they realise the political game: the part of the electorate that is susceptible to this is never persuaded by argument in the first place. All that they remember is 'and wasn't there also some fuzz about his birth certificate? I'm not sure we should trust a man who seems to be surrounded by controversy all of the time'

[Lemur]

I don't see why the heck he did not just release it in the first place. Seriously, he released it now, so he obviously had nothing to fear this entire time.

Actually, he needed to apply for a waiver to Hawaiian law to get the long form. Foolishly, he thought showing the legal document (short form, the one you use to get a driver's license or a passport), the testimony of the Republican governor and her Department of Health would be sufficient.

Now, suddenly Donald Trump is riding high in the polls from stroking the birthers. So President 44 applied for an exception to the policy, flew his attorney to Hawaii, and got the danged thing.

I love how quickly this has pivoted from "What does he have to hide?" to "Why did he take so long?"

He did not take long. He proved his citizenship years ago, and made all of the relevant documents public in 2007.

[Greyblades]

'scuse me but who's donald trump?

[Lemur]

'scuse me but who's donald trump?

-edit-

And in further denialist news, we have the Queen Bee speaking up:

Specifically, Taitz thinks that the birth certificate should peg Obama's race as "Negro" and not "African."

"In those years ... when they wrote race, they were writing 'Negro' not 'African'," Taitz says. "In those days nobody wrote African as a race, it just wasn't one of the options. It sounds like it would be written today, in the age of political correctness, and not in 1961 when they wrote white or Asian or 'Negro'."

And at least one lawmaker is trying to keep the homefires burning:

"What I've seen online, what they produced today, still says certificate of live birth across the top," she told me. And she's right.

But why isn't that just a nomenclature issue? Why does it matter?

"We want to see a 'birth certificate,'" Guthrie explained. "The one that we have that says 'birth certificate' is from Mombassa, Kenya, with his footprint on it. He has still not produced an American birth certificate."

Guthrie is referring to an internet rumor that Lucas Smith, an Iowa activist, found a birth certificate from Kenya that contains all the information skeptics want to see from Obama. It was introduced as evidence in one of Orly Taitz's filings. The problem: That certificate is forged.

[PanzerJaeger]

His reasoning is the rightwing point scoring below:

Hey, don't blame this all on rightwing point scoring. The story originated with the Clinton campaign in '08.

[Tellos Athenaios]

As Louis said, right wing point scoring, then.

[Louis VI the Fat]

Hey, don't blame this all on rightwing point scoring. The story originated with the Clinton campaign in '08.

Yes...well...but...back then, before this had all been resolved, Hillary was right to call into question the allegiance of this unknown man. Who was as of then of unclear past, with a racist pastor and who possibly palled around with terrorists. Bless Hillary for clearing all that up in the face of stiff opposition from PC political sentiment, those vile racists who would have stifled Hillary's brave search for the truth because she was but a whitey and he a noble Black man. Bunch of misogynists, tsk.

[Crazed Rabbit]

Does the Donald ever shut up? Sadly, no.

The key to distinguishing conspiracy theorists, I think, is that they won't change their position no matter what evidence you show them. Long form certificate? They need DNA. DNA? It was fake! A 30 year long video chronicling Obama's life from birth through living in Chicago? It had a five minute break, wherein they switched the real and the imposter Obama!

I think that tweet from Nate Silver is great.

Finally, I love Louis' new sig.

CR

[Strike For The South]

This is still in a issue?

Time flies when you've descended into emotionally driven destructive alcoholism

[lars573]

'scuse me but who's donald trump?

A billionaire blowhard who wants to be president in 2012. And is using his TV presence to start the campaign now.

[Ronin]

what else needs to be said really?

[Ironside]

A billionaire blowhard who wants to be president in 2012. And is using his TV presence to start the campaign now.

Of course, with recent events, it's now questionable if he's a born American citizen. But that's nothing a birth certificate, DNA-samples from him and his parents and a few witnesses of his birth can't fix.

[PanzerJaeger]

what else needs to be said really?

I never knew Trump's towers were built on the blood of disrespected slaves and freedom fighters.

I think Baratunde has been reading a little bit too much about Malcolm X.