Brad Johnson’s (formerly of Climate Progress, now of “Forecast the Facts”) “Rally Against Corporate Climate Deniers” was a great bit of entertainment for many at the Heartland conference yesterday. I was in session, and couldn’t attend, but I heard about the guy wearing a rubber boot on his head with the bullhorn (Vermin Supreme who ran for president and campaigned in 2012 on a platform of zombie apocalypse awareness and time travel research and he promises a free pony for every American.). I heard about this guy from Lucia, who was there and promises has an update on her blog. I hear she has some video of the cops intervening.
It may be the “boot” was parodying the fact that Brad Johnson seems to have “gotten the boot” from the Center for American Progress/Think Progress, as he no longer seems to be associated or publishing his rants there. Maybe it was the repeated suggestions that tornadoes were retributions for a conservative voting record that did it.
This “protest” he staged is hilarious on so many levels for the sheer FAIL on display. He couldn’t even pull off a decent protest. Kid’s today are nothing like their radical parents of the 60’s. Pictures follow.
From Tom Nelson:
From Brad Johnson’s “Rally Against Corporate Climate Deniers” photos here:
Although the “boot on the head” guy was arguably the most prominent figure at the protest, Johnson didn’t publish any individual shots of him. I wonder why? Note that the boot is visible at left in the group picture above.
Today’s (yesterday’s) sparsely-attended climate hoax activist protest in Chicago
One of the loudest protesters was the guy who wore a rubber boot on his head for some unexplained reason. His bullhorn was labeled “Vermin Supreme”.
A banner was evidently supposed to be dramatically unfurled, but I don’t think anyone could read it:
This woman was pedaling around a planet-saving sign, with planet-killing bottled water within easy reach:
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They couldn’t get a rent-a-crowd because they were all taken or hung-over from the NATO protests. Besides those rent-a-crowds are getting expensive. It isn’t like the old days when they would do it for beer money. These are professional anarchists now with an organization and a union to support. /sarc (I love the idea of an anarchist union, but I don’t really think it has progressed quite that far yet!)
Given that this event seems to have attracted a booming crowd of TENs of participants the ratio of media observers appears to be quite large. Is there any information available on how many of these stalwart news gathers actually ventured into the conference itself. I would have thought that the world would be better served by being informed of the words of Anthony or Vaclav Klaus than this coffee klatch of fools, but than again I never went to journalism school so what do I know.
Today’s (yesterday’s) sparsely-attended climate hoax activist protest in Chicago …
And how many people are in attendance at the Heartland conference as compared to the previous one?
@Owen in GA says:
May 23, 2012 at 9:19 am
“They couldn’t get a rent-a-crowd because they were all taken or hung-over from the NATO protests. Besides those rent-a-crowds are getting expensive. It isn’t like the old days when they would do it for beer money. These are professional anarchists now with an organization and a union to support. /sarc (I love the idea of an anarchist union, but I don’t really think it has progressed quite that far yet!)“
LOL! Brilliant!
I’ve been trying to join the International Union of Anarchists but we can never agree on where to meet or at what time and no one will vote for anyone else to be President of the Union. Herding cats comes to mind…
R, Owen – you’re statements would be true if we were talking about real anarchists … BUT the current crop are just a bunch of losers who are using the movement as an excuse to riot, break things, and loot, if given the chance. I’m sure they are well organized and directed — it’s just that we can’t see it.
microsoft, comcast, pfizer? are they sponsors????????
“Marc Morano and Christopher Monckton take on “vermin supreme”
I don’t believe it. Neither Morano or Monckton had a bullhorn, so Vermin wouldn’t even have been able to hear them.
Phil C says:
May 23, 2012 at 10:43 am
“Today’s (yesterday’s) sparsely-attended climate hoax activist protest in Chicago …
And how many people are in attendance at the Heartland conference as compared to the previous one?”
How many ducks does it take to make a row?
@ur momisugly H.R. “I’ve been trying to join the International Union of Anarchists but we can never agree on where to meet or at what time and no one will vote for anyone else to be President of the Union. Herding cats comes to mind…”
Lol! Actually, yes, that is funny. Would make a nice tee shirt, I think. 🙂
In all fairness to anarchists though, I have to remind folks that “Anarchy does not mean no rules — it means no rulers!” There is no reason in the world why anarchists could not form a Union of Anarchists, just as long as membership was voluntary and the union did not instigate violence against anyone
>That’s a hoot! If these people are representative of what’s left of the alarmist movement, it’s over.
No, it’s not over. These are just the useful idiot.
“…he promises a free pony for every American.”
Them’s good eatin’.
I just love the way these clowns judge Microsoft and Comcast as part and parcel of the skeptical side of this debate (hah!) because those companies offer certain discounts or services to 501c(3) groups and they refuse to illegally discriminate against some of these groups, like Heartland.
katabasis1 says:
May 23, 2012 at 6:28 am
“The last scene in the video below is an excellent summary of what it is like to be a climate sceptic at a British university these days:”
In Germany, the warmists are slower. More like Romero zombies. (Running zombies? Really? What were they thinking…)
mwhite says:
May 23, 2012 at 11:50 am
“microsoft, comcast, pfizer? are they sponsors????????”
Microsoft provides free office licenses to 10,000s of charities, so the warmists have used that to single them out. Microsoft didn’t even know what Heartland was about.
Crispin in Waterloo says:
May 23, 2012 at 8:52 am
“I remember when protesters had a cause worth opposing (war, particularly).”
Don’t know about your anti-war protesters but the German ones of the 70ies were controlled by the KGB and the Stasi. Their objective was to get nukes out of the whole of Europe which would have played into the hands of the Warsaw pact with its conventional superiority by numbers.
Jason Calley says:
May 23, 2012 at 12:26 pm
@ur momisugly H.R. “I’ve been trying to join the International Union of Anarchists but we can never agree on where to meet or at what time and no one will vote for anyone else to be President of the Union. Herding cats comes to mind…
Lol! Actually, yes, that is funny. Would make a nice tee shirt, I think. 🙂
In all fairness to anarchists though, I have to remind folks that “Anarchy does not mean no rules — it means no rulers!” There is no reason in the world why anarchists could not form a Union of Anarchists, just as long as membership was voluntary and the union did not instigate violence against anyone
=============================================================
But … wouldn’t the anarchists who make the rules be the rule makers? Isn’t that what rulers do?
AndrewWH says:
May 23, 2012 at 8:46 am
“I wonder if Vermin Supreme is the same person who posts on here as Rattus Norvegicus?
You know, the one who seems to think they are actually a Norway Rat?”
Even though it is called Rattus Norvegicus, it is not limited to Norway but just the usual rat in all countries. Comes from east asia originally and travels with humans. Rattus Rattus is smaller.
Size comparison:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Comparison_Black_Rat_Brown_Rat_EN.svg
@Jason Calley
Yes but the nature of humanity is always to look for someone stronger to protect them from the storms. The problem comes when that stronger one wants something in return for their protection – namely your obedience! Anarchy would eventually lead to tyranny just as surely as socialism does. A true free enterprise system (unlike the crony capitalism we practice today) would be the only way to ensure the freedom of the individual. Of course there will still be those who would give up freedom for security, but in the end they will have neither as in the end, the slave must dance to the master’s tune.
I’d bet on the renegades. Any time there is such mainstream unanimity on a “right-thinking” issue like this, it’s likely overdone. (E.g., compare the fluoridation unanimity of 50 years ago vs. the even split today.)
Ten years from now, Heartland could quote that slogan, and append a riposte, “You should have trusted us!”
Ten years from now, people are going to think that 97% of climate scientists are full of it, and 100% of National Scientific Academies.
@DirkH
Most of the protesters in the US didn’t know it, but the money that supported their whole infrastructure in the 60’s and 70’s came from the KGB. The files on this at the FBI were as thick as the political acumen of most of the protesters. Of course, there are no laws in the US against foreigners funding charities, so the FBI only monitored and took action only when events crossed the line. Thing is most of the useful idiots grew out of it as they got older; Churchill’s observation about politics and age proved true and they became more conservative. A few, however, became true believers and are still out there trying to relive the halcyon days of the Weather Underground and the Students for a Democratic Society. I spoke to an old SDS true believer in the last year who still doesn’t want to admit that it was a KGB funded group. Of course he was one of the students at Berkeley back in the day and not anywhere near leadership, just another useful idiot to the cause. Though the true believers are now mostly college professors or professional agitators and have too much to lose to get on the actual protest lines – they are too valuable indoctrinating the next useful idiots.
I didn’t see cops intervening in anything. One assisted me when I jaywalked across Michigan avenue.
There was some discussion of the crucifix Monckton was wearing. I’d gauge it as smaller than the kind the nuns at my high school wore but larger than the jewelry type ones some girls I knew wore. (Sometimes these had been gifts for confirmation of first communion. Some guys wear these too. But in the majority of cases I am familiar with, the crosses are worn rather inconspicuously.)
I was a bit curious about the crucifix because I don’t remember Monckton wearing one before. I found an article that suggests the right to wear a crucifix to work has become something of an issue in the UK. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/religion/9136191/Christians-have-no-right-to-wear-cross-at-work-says-Government.html
phil c~ Well we have heard about 57 no-shows. Cowards all, in my book.
… did I mention they were ALL warmists?
Otter writes:
Well we have heard about 57 no-shows. Cowards all, in my book.… did I mention they were ALL warmists?
From what I read elsewhere, Joe Bast announced that attendance was under 300 and there are no plans for another conference, and then made an appeal for money. Sounds like things aren’t going well for Bast and Heartland. Gee — if the “warmists” don’t come to the ICCC and the conference can’t go on without them, it kind of makes you wonder how few people out there actually see value in the ICCC.
This is no big secret: Rattus Norvegicus is an activist from Montana called John Sully.
Phil C says:
“And how many people are in attendance at the Heartland conference as compared to the previous one?”
I didn’t attend last year’s conference so I can’t compare numbers. But the dinners [which ranged up to $60] were pretty much filled to capacity. Some empty seats, but not many. And it was a big dining room.
Compare this, Phil: when I left the hotel today there was exactly ONE (1) protester. He looked very lonely. IMHO, one protester was worse than none. He reminded everyone how pathetic his feeble ‘protest’ was. Add insult to injury: no one was taking his flyers. Everyone ignored him.