Green vs. Tea, Round 1: Party Battle Napa
 |
The Green Party faced off against the Tea Party on Saturday in Napa, California.
Democrats? Republicans? Snort. What do you think this is, the 20th century?
Neither of the dinosaur parties were much in evidence as the nation’s two new emergent parties did battle for the heart of America.
Green or Tea, which shall it be?
The catalyst that triggered this political firefight was the arrival in Napa of the Tea Party Express buses; Saturday, August 27 was the day the media-savvy group kicked off its coast-to-coast Reclaiming America Tour, culminating on September 12 in Tampa, Florida, at the CNN/Tea Party Express Debate between various presidential primary candidates.
Grassroots Tea Party groups from the region — the Wine Country, the North Bay, and nearby — converged on the Napa County Fairgrounds for a brief two-hour visit by the Tea Party Express buses and their accompanying CNN cameras.
But the Green Party simply could not let this stand. Word went out across the land that the Greens would be waiting with a “massive anti-tea party rally”:
Green “Tea Party” (massive anti-tea party rally)
The Napa County Green Party invites you to participate in a momentous and historic Green “tea party” on Saturday, August 27, 2011, at 10:30 AM in Veterans Memorial Park at the corner of Main and Third streets in downtown Napa. Come help us unwelcome the Tea Party Express to Napa and instead show the public a positive Green Party alternative.
This Green Party counter-rally is being held simultaneously with the Tea Party’s kick-off of its national tour. The Tea Party has steered our nation further toward the reactionary right, undermining workers’ collective bargaining rights, attacking human rights such as access to health care, damaging our environment through attacks on regulation, and fostering an anti-diversity agenda that scapegoats Muslims, immigrants, and the LGBT community.
As the dominant parties acquiesce to this reactionary current, the Green Party stands apart as the healthiest alternative to the corrupt two-party system; a “duopoly” that has given rise to this right-wing shift. …
This Green “tea party” will be a chance for Green Party members and our progressive allies from across the state to unite in opposition to the negative Tea Party agenda by affirming positive Green Party values such as grassroots democracy, social justice, respect for diversity, nonviolence, community-based economics, and sustainability. …
Our rally will culminate in a progressive solidarity march from Veterans Park to the Napa Valley Expo Fairgrounds just across the river to protest the Tea Party Express event being held there.
The gauntlet has been thrown!
Meanwhile, the various local Tea Party groups didn’t seem to publicize the event much; in fact, I only heard about it because I was on the Green mailing list! The much-ballyhooed decentralized nature of the Tea Party sometimes has its drawbacks; and there was also a certain undercurrent of grumbling about the overly slick prepackaged glitziness and old-school establishment connections of the Tea Party Express group. Would anyone show up at all?
Maybe the counter-rally would be bigger than the main rally itself.
Ding!! The “momentous and historic” match has begun!
I showed up shortly before 11am and decided my first stop should be the Green Party’s “massive anti-tea party rally” scheduled to begin at 10:30am in Napa’s Veterans’ Park. But when I showed up, this is what greeted me: about 20 people milling around an empty plaza. Hmmmm….
I drifted around looking for answers. Several of the people there were from various socialist groups, like the ISO (International Socialist Organization), whose signs were about the Middle East, not “green” policies.
The MDS (Movement for a Democratic Society), another ultra-far-left group, comprised another significant portion of the attendees. Boring. I want individual opinions! I went in search of the unaffiliated at the rally.
Now we’re talkin’. This guy compared the Tea Party to the “John Birh” Society.
His sign merits a close-up of its own:
“TEA PARTY SAME STUFF nEW nAME = John BIRH Society SocIEty They ARE are WACKO.”
After a while, the crowd swelled to around 35, as a Green Party speaker at the podium raised his arms in triumph.
It quickly became obvious that the planned march on the Tea Party event wasn’t going to happen any time soon. So I bailed out early and headed over to the fairgrounds by myself. Instead of accompanying the invading army as an embedded journalist (my original plan), maybe I could watch the invasion from the Tea Party side.
On the way there, I encountered a small group of counter-protesters already leaving the Tea Party site. I had gotten my first inkling that something was awry.
Note how these counter-protesters are all white, fairly old, and carrying a flag. Despite that, they carried a sign accusing the Tea Partiers of being…
“Tea Baggers: Old White people Who Wear Flags.” Someone needs to introduce these folks to a mirror.
As I drew close to the fairgrounds’ front gate, I encountered a small stream of union members arriving with anti-Tea Party signs. What’s going on?
Ten or twenty union members lined up outside the entrance, but the Tea Partiers who were filing past them mainly ignored the spectacle.
And here’s where the confusion began.
Thinking that this was just some small-potatoes wildcat counter-protest, I shrugged my shoulders and entered the Tea Party event as well. But apparently, either while I was inside the fairgrounds, or perhaps before I even showed up in Napa, there was a somewhat larger union-organized protest that I somehow managed to miss. Or that’s what the media reported:
Police and newspaper estimates placed the crowd at the Napa Valley Exposition at about 600, with another 200 Green Party, Democratic and union activists demonstrating in opposition outside the Expo fence.
However, Alex Shantz of the Napa County Green Party said the size of the counter-demonstration was closer to 300.
While the protesters outside chanted, marched, waved signs and even briefly displayed a giant inflatable rat, the tea party rally on the Expo grounds featured heavily-amplified singers and speakers, two gleaming “Tea Party Express” buses and a mammoth American flag.
In addition to the giant inflatable rat was this sign: “Kill All Humans.” (I didn’t take this photo, but I wish I had; the original is part of the “Napa Patch” article linked above; direct link to the photo here.
Could it be that the anti-Tea Party forces were completely discombobulated? It seemed that there were two separate counter-protests planned — one by the Greens, and another by the unions — but neither was aware of the other. So instead of coordinating forces for a more effective unified full-frontal assault, each group independently staged small ineffective confrontations. What else could explain why the Greens were still assembling over at Veterans’ Park, while the unions were already protesting at the front gate?
The Numbers Game
You may have noticed that the crowd estimates quoted above are wildly at odds with the photos shown in this report. I was pretty stunned by the media’s estimates as well, and tried to find verification; all I could come up with was this image showing the elusive combined union/Green counter-protest that I somehow managed to miss, showing 45 protesters grouped together and ready to march. But where are the other 255, to reach the claimed 300 total? Let’s be generous and double that 45 up to 90, then round it up again to 100. We’re still 200 short. (Anybody who can provide me with a photo showing more than 100 counter-protesters, please post the link in the comments!)
Meanwhile, the same article estimates the Tea Party crowd at only 600, only twice as large as the counter-protest. I walked into the Tea Party event, stood approximately in the middle, and took this picture. To my right, out of the frame, is the CNN camera platform, which was on the centerline of the event facing the stage. Further off to my right are several booths and tables with people browsing. In the distance straight ahead, out of sight, there is a wine-tasting area and dozens more booths; and also a central midway with throngs of people coming and going; out of the frame to my left are several additional rows of seated Tea Partiers; and then the stage area itself; and finally, behind me is the entire other half of the event, maybe not quite as crowded as what you see here, but equal in area at least. And despite all that, I counted (took me 15 minutes, but I counted) about 500 people (or parts of people) visible just in this image alone, even though it only covers maybe 30% at most of the whole event. (For those obsessed with crowd estimates, I have made the full-resolution version of the photo available; just click on the image to see it, and start counting yourself; get ready for eyestrain.)
Based on this image, and my general impressions of the day (including the fact that people were arriving and leaving throughout the event so that the overall crowd size stayed the same but included new arrivees), I would personally estimate the size of the Tea Party crowd at closer to 2,000, and 1,500 at a minimum.
CNN makes no estimate of the Tea Party crowd, but says there were only “several dozen” counter-protesters, which seems far more accurate than the “Patch” article linked above.
AP give a generous 100 estimate for the counter-protesters, but limits the Tea Partiers to “several hundred.”
The S.F. Chronicle guesstimated “dozens” of counter-protesters and “hundreds” of Tea Partiers, which is probably the closest to being accurate.
My estimate? About 90 counter-protesters (half of them Green Partiers, the other half union members), and about 2,000 Tea Partiers. (Any evidence either way is welcomed in the comments section.) And since I hate the whole crowd-estimation numbers game, and am only doing this because of the media misreporting, that’s the last time I’ll mention it!
The Tea Party rally
It was a very upbeat affair all around. None of the hate or racism or ignorance that the Tea Party’s detractors endlessly fantasize about. Instead, people broke into spontaneous chorus lines…
…and frantically started waving American flags at the first notes of any patriotic song.
The purpose of the event was to watch a procession of performers and speakers on stage, but I have no patience for that, so I took a stroll around while I waited for the counter-protest Green hurricane to strike.
Many people embraced the Wall Street Journal‘s (and John McCain’s) off-kilter condemnation of Tea Partiers as “Hobbits” — with this woman declaring 2012 to be the “Year of the Hobbits.”
A Nevada Tea Party group even went so far as to name itself “TEAm Hobbit Express.”
And yes, they brought Sharron Angle along with them — the only politician to address the rally. SFGate’s Carla Marinucci recorded Angle’s off-key rendition of “God Bless America,” which you can view here, if you dare.
I have a suggestion: Musicians can stop getting involved in politics, and politicians can stop singing. Deal?
This little gal seemed to sum up the national mood perfectly.
Wow, those are some huge . . . stripes.
Hallelujah!
According to the CNN article linked above: “Kevin Trout watched the speeches with a Sarah Palin sign leaning on his wheelchair. ‘I want Palin to run. She’s for constitutionally limited government,’ Trout said. ‘And she did not kill her youngest child.’ Trout was referring to Trig Palin, who was born with Down syndrome. Palin has said that, after tests during her pregnancy, she knew her fifth child would be born with special needs.”
This being the Napa Valley, there was of course wine tasting.
I began to lose my patience, waiting for the Greens to crash the event. What’s the freakin’ holdup?
In frustration, I quit the fairgrounds, saw that the union protesters were already gone, and once again headed over to the Green base camp at Veterans’ Park.
As I approached, I saw the crowd had reached its maximum extent — I counted 65 people!
But when I got there, I was sorely disappointed — turns out that most of the “new” extra people were nothing more than the same union protesters I had seen earlier, but who had apparently gotten wind of the Green gathering, so had retreated back here after their own small union-only protest.
Things were just as lethargic as they had been earlier. An SEIU member filled his cup with complimentary green tea, as everybody waited around for something to happen. Thrills.
It was easy to identify the people who had originally been part of the union contingent — they were the ones praising Obama. There was a bit of tension in the air as the true Greens were ranting against the “two-party corporate oligarchy,” slamming Democrats and Republicans alike.
(Interestingly, there was also a harder-to-detect rift in the Tea Party side, as revealed in the first comment on this article: “The real tea party does not support the Tea Party Express which is FreedomWorks, not legit. Let them call for a real tea party and you will have thousands of independent people, not some PAC who hijacked the movement in 2009….”)
Socialism: ass-punchingly good!
While the Tea Party featured Sharron Angle singing “God Bless America,” the Green Party’s featured entertainment was a rap group going by the name Digital Martyrs.
Digital Martyrs are a trio of angry Islamic hiphoppers. The lead rapper’s shirt had a picture of a guy holding an automatic rifle.
Their first song contained the phrases “shoot a politician” and “Sarah Palin,” but I couldn’t make out the rest (Video to come soon!)
Someone showed up with a sign saying “God hates nags.” I thought at first that he must be a double-reverse Tea Party counter-counter-protester making fun of the nanny-statism advocated by the Greens, but I soon discovered he was Green Party activist Hank Chapot, and his sign was intended to reference the “God Hates Fags” signs held up by the Fred Phelps clan, and he was trying to associate the Tea Party with the homophobic Westboro Baptist Church. I realized then there was no hope. Doesn’t he realize that conservatives and patriots hate the Phelps clan even more than the Greens do? If the first lesson in political strategy is “Know thy enemy,” this guy fails.
Over at the Tea Party rally, people were mocking socialism. And, true to form, there were indeed socialist groups at the Green rally. But the Greens here were mocking purported homophobia and racism at the Tea Party event — except there was no homophobia or racism to be found there. Result: The Tea Party volleys hit their target; the Green Party volleys missed completely. A one-sided battle.
Kook Duel
In the desolate de-populated expanse of the Green Party rally, one of the activists wandered around in a Scooby-Doo t-shirt and wild pants.
As he drew closer I became interested in his notepad — what had he written on it?
It wasn’t until much later after I uploaded the photos that I was able to decipher his message by inverting the image in a photo editor, and reading the words which had leaked through from the other side of the page:
THEY WANT TO STAMP BARCODES ON OUR HANDS BECAUSE THEY WANT [TOTAL] CONTROL.
Before you start laughing at the Green kook, note that some equivalent kookery was present at one table at the Tea Party rally.
One of the chapters of the California branch of the Eagle Forum seems to have been taken over by conspiracy theorists. Lined up behind their table were several signs not only warning against one-world government, but also against…
…Smart Meters, and chemtrails! Oy gevalt. Up until this moment, I had only ever seen chemtrail lunacy at left-wing rallies, and was saddened to see the same nuttiness appear at a Tea Party event too. I guess conspiracy theorists know no political boundaries! Interestingly, one of the Green Party speakers back in Veterans’ Park cited this as a point of possible convergence: opposition to Smart Meters can be found on both sides of the political (kook) spectrum, he said. Let’s join forces! Sigh.
Hey, dudes, it’s your signs that are giving me brain damage.
Word of advice to future Tea Party organizers: Exercise a little “message control” and keep the chemtrail conspiracy theorists away from the sign-up sheet!
Finally: The Green Party Counter-Protest
Anyway, the Digital Martyrs rapped on and on, and then more Green speakers were announced, and I simply gave up on these people: the 1pm departure of the Tea Party Express buses was fast approaching, and the Greens were still dithering. So for a second time I bailed out and headed back to the fairgrounds.
But back in Tea Town, things were already starting to wind down. People posed in front of the buses for last-minute souvenir shots…
…and shopped for Tea Party schwag.
I was about to declare the counter-protest a no-show, when, in the distance, I heard some faint voices. Could it be…?
Huzzah! The Green invasion had begun! Except for one tiny problem — they showed up at the back fence of the fairgrounds, where nobody could see them!
To give you an idea of how far removed the Green counter-protest was from the main Tea Party action: Those are the Greens on the other side of that fence in the distance, and I’m standing in the middle of the fairgrounds, with a few Tea Party stragglers visible on the right at the far back end of the rally.
Here’s the reverse angle: looking at the Tea Party from the viewpoint of the Green counter-protesters. Helllloooo! Yoo-hoooo! We’re staging a “momentous and historic massive anti-tea party rally” over here! Hey, c’mon, look over here! Historic, I tell you!
Finally, a few Tea Partiers at the very back end of the rally heard the distant shouts and turned to look.
Eventually about eight Tea Partiers thought it would be funny to go over and “feed the trolls.”
I couldn’t hear what the two opposing camps were yelling at each other, but I think it was probably variations on “You suck!”
Brilliant decision, Greens, to position yourselves in the one spot where you were practically invisible, and only a handful of Tea Partiers even knew you were there!
The union members had come along for the ride as well, and even brought their giant inflatable rat, a prop they use during strikes to portray management as “rats.” Didn’t make much sense in this setting, but hey, a giant inflatable anything always adds panache to a revolution! (Photo courtesy of Bay Area Patriots.)
One of the Greens held a signs saying “‘Tea Party’ sounds better than ‘Racist homophobic mob.’”(Photo courtesy of Bay Area Patriots.)
Racist? Homophobic? Not a trace of either at the event. Now, sure, most of the Tea Partiers were white folks. But most of the Green Partiers were white too. In fact, numerically speaking, I saw more minorities at the Tea Party than I did at the Green Party. (All of this is unsurprising: Napa overall is less than 1% African-American.) It’s like the pot calling the kettle white.
Luckily, one of the counter-protesters took and posted a video documenting the scene from the other side of the fence:
(Note, also, how you can clearly count the number of people in the entire group as they pass by the camera between 0:32 and 1:05 in the video; I counted exactly 43.)
I decided to go join the Greens, so I once again exited back out the front gate of the Tea Party rally and went all the way around the fairgrounds to the counter-protest at the back fence. But by the time I got there…the Napa Police had shunted the Greens way down to the very far end of the block, to ensure they didn’t try to attack the Tea Party Express buses as they exited. (That’s the “massive anti-tea party rally” in the distance, at the end of the block.)
Fashionably late, the Tea Party Express buses pulled out of the fairgrounds’ back gate…
…and headed off to their next stop in Reno, Nevada. Goodbye!
With the buses safely on their way and the Tea Party event breaking up, the police released the Green counter-protesters from their holding zone. They headed back up the block.
But even at this late stage there was still confusion and disunity as protesters pointed every which way and started to head off in various directions. Momentous! Historic!
The last remaining loyalists retreated back across the bridge over the Napa River to base camp.
The signs were packed away to re-use at the next revolution. Remember to recycle!
But where had everybody been? Why was the Green event a total washout, and the Tea Party event a middling affair?
I got my answer as I walked over to the center of downtown Napa. By sheer coincidence, today had been…
…the Blues, Brews and BBQ festival in Napa, and it seemed like every living person from a 50-mile radius was crammed into Napa’s historic district! Solid drunken humanity as far as the eye could see!
The moral of today’s story? Beer trumps politics.
Bonus pictures:
This exact same sign has already made an appearance at several Bay Area Tea Party events, and since I’ve already included it in previous reports, I decided to move it here to the “extras” section for those readers who may not have yet seen it. An oldie but goodie!
Similarly, Mr. Dunce Hat is by now a regular at northern California anti-Obama rallies.
There comes a times in the course of blogging when one finds it necessary to present a picture upside-down. I mentioned earlier about the Tea Partiers’ on-target mockery of socialism and political linking of “green” and “red”; here’s a good example.
Enthusiasm: A
Execution: C-
Ah, the Napa Knot-head Marching and Wailing Society still exists!
Reminds me of an old chant:
Rooty-toot-toot!
Rooty-toot-toot!
We are the men from the Institute!
NAPA! NAPA! NAPA!
It’s quite telling that the Tea Party was able to put a larger crowd together than the “green union” types, especially so close to The Moonbat Capital of the USA, also known as The Bay Area. As usual, your essay speaks volumes. Great job!
I’m still trying to figure where union iron workers would find a job in Napa County…
One of the signs said something about Oakland. There used to be a lot of shipbuilding on that side of the Bay, and ship repair also. I would assume the local is a last vestige of that. UAW still has locals here in Southern California, though we haven’t manufactured cars here in decades…
Well, there used to be a Naval Shipyard (MAre Island) in Vallejo, but Billy Clinton shut it down as part of the “Cold War Dividend”. Vallejo is now bankrupt. Thanks, Bill.
There used to also be a Kaiser Steel facility, one that built oil rigs.
Not no more.
Funny! My favorite part was the old white people with flags. How dare anyone be born before the year 1990 of white parents, anyway?
So many classic lines in this!
“Democrats? Republicans? Snort. What do you think this is, the 20th century?”
“Someone needs to introduce these folks to a mirror.”
“Socialism: ass-punchingly good!”
“Helllloooo! Yoo-hoooo! We’re staging a “momentous and historic massive anti-tea party rally” over here! Hey, c’mon, look over here! Historic, I tell you!”
“Didn’t make much sense in this setting, but hey, a giant inflatable anything always adds panache to a revolution!”
“The moral of today’s story? Beer trumps politics.”
Among many others! And my favorite is
“Wow, those are some huge . . . stripes.”
Zombie, you remain the all-time best caption-writer! A joy to read.
I can think of no better message for winning converts to your political ideology than “KILL ALL HUMANS.”
Works every time! A guaranteed crowd-pleaser.
Of course, ridding the planet of humanity is the true ultimate goal of the Gaia/Green/de-development types. At least give the guy credit for being honest.
Don’t make too big a deal of the “Kill All Humans” sign, it’s not what it appears.
“Kill All Humans” is one of the favorite lines of Bender, the robot, in the animated series Futurama, created by Matt Groening, the creator of The Simpsons. (His other favorite line is “Kiss My Shiny Metal @$$”.) The sketch below the words “Kill All Humans” is the head of Bender. Bender is a “lovable scalawag” character in the show. He claims to want all humans dead but actually hangs out with them extensively. Futurama, if you haven’t seen it, is a comedy set on Earth in the year 3000. It’s quite good in my opinion.
As for the guy who made the sign, I obviously have no idea what his intent was. Perhaps he also hates all humans but actually means it; I couldn’t say. But I’m strongly tempted to see this sign as a tribute to a TV character, not a political manifesto of what he would like to see happen.
This kind of thing always brightens my day.
Chances are, a lot of the Tea Partiers (and probably the unionists) headed over for beer and barbecue after the rally, and the Greens went home to bean sprouts and whine.
As a “Show of Force” by the “Greens”/Unions, in the Bay Area, this was a conspicuous FAIL. Perhaps Boxer/Pelossi are in trouble…
Boxer and Pelosi in trouble? Not a chance. The arrogance and poor judgement of white liberal strongholds like Marin County, SF, and Silicon Valley are unchangeable and fixed. Changing their minds is not possible because it would lead to invalidation of their entire self-flattering belief system and that’s not something they’re ever going to give in to.
As a lifelong Californian, I can tell you that California is deeply, utterly screwed. Not because there aren’t solutions to our problems but because the electorate here would never, ever approve of those solutions. The problem here is the brainwashed citizens (many of whom are illegal – and vote) and I don’t see that problem ever getting fixed.
As a legal immigrant living in Silicon Valley since 1958 I can attest to the truth of your statement. Now Eshoo has the audacity to run again, how about a gracious retirement? Alas, no such luck.
You’re both right about it not changing, but not because of the population. California can’t change because of the Machiavellian *gerrymandering* that keeps the criminally liberal element in place, guarding their minions, pensions, and the political class. Sad for the rest of us who have to actually make a living and produce so they can live off our work.
Well done, it is so nice to catch the propaganda bureaus in their lies. In a word, Hilarious! Thank You!
If I were a very wealthy person, I would buy a helicoptor, paint it black, and then just fly it around Berkeley. For fun, I would register it to a company called Haliburton/Koch. I could even take it to Burning Man.
There’s an even simpler, cheaper way to achieve the same effect, for just a couple hundred bucks:
Buy one of these $300 remote-control easy-fly mini-helicopters with on-board cameras, then spend a hundred bucks painting it black and tricking it out with all sorts of sinister-looking CIA/Halliburton/NSA logos. Then find a good hidden perch and fly it all around the next leftie protest, making sure to save all the video streaming from it. If your copter survives the experience, the freaked-out lefties will be talking about it for years — and you still have the device to do it again the next time. If, on the other hand, they manage to knock it down, or if you crash it accidentally, then the markings will send them into even more of a tizzy! And the $400 investment would easily be worth it.
I think an even better idea would be to have stuff like “Property of USDOJ. Operation approved by AGHOLDER” or “DOD Drone surveillance program, August 27, 2011″‘ — so they become convinced that Obama is spying on them! Double the fun!
Reminds me of an episode here a while back, a women called the cops because an “Air Force missile” had crashed in her back yard. Turned out it was an Estes model rocket, a model of a Phoenix missile (admittedly a well-built one).
Looking for donations?
No, I can afford it myself — if I wanted to. But I’m not the right person to do this — I’m not much of a prankster. I just passively record what happens, rather than create what happens.
Also, it takes video-game skills to control the helicopter, and I’ve never played a video game in my life, and wouldn’t have the slightest inkling how to fly the thing. I’d surely crash it almost immediately.
But if someone else does it — sounds like jolly fun!
They only fly for about 12 minutes, which is the downfall of all electric remote control vehicles. It would be better to just by a gas powered one. More noise, burning fuel and pissing off socialists all at the same time.
12 minutes is more than enough time to send the protesters into a frenzy of paranoia. Heck, you’d only need one or two minutes really. Just hover and buzz, hover and buzz, two minutes is all it would take, then zip away to a hidden location around a corner before they could follow.
Zombie,
November 2010 showed that California is a lost cause. It is an irredentist, Marxist state, due to collapse economically and socially into violent unrest.
Let it collapse so it may serve as an example.
Not all of California is like that. Maybe a secession movement in Orange and San Diego counties, or the Central Valley, would have some traction. We’d have to wait for a Congress and President that would approve splitting the state, but I expect that soon anyway.
I love how Zombie integrates his/her photos with his/her stories to build “suspense.” I just knew, given that the Tea Party was in Napa Valley, that maybe 50 people would show. It was fun to scroll down through the pictures to see how many turned up – and apparently they would have won a spelling bee against the “green party.” Probably would have won the hygiene test as well.
Enjoyed this piece as always! Keep it up Zombie!
irene is tahrir square for co-titular head of the warmerbagger patriots al gore.
Loved this! As a tea drinker from the south I’m surprised at the number of tea partiers at the rally. Maybe CA is not a total goner. My only complaint is the “beer trumps politics” line, it seems to lack that lovable Zombie wit. May I suggest “Beer trumps Tea – all flavors”.
Great piece. To echo similar observations of other such events, in all the photos of the grounds where the Tea Party rallied, there was not a spec of trash on the ground. Take that Greenies!
I find the idea that the Green Party would decry the so-called “racism” of the Tea Party to be particularly laughable, considering that their official 2008 presidential candidate, Cynthia McKinney, was/is an avowed anti-semite.
In triple-L land (Looney Liberal Left), antisemitism is not considered racism.
I would bet the entire content of my bank account that every single solitary one of those Green people comprise the 47% of persons who pay ZERO income tax.
I’m not a gambler, but I know a lousy bet, with improbable odds of me winning. Very astute observation. You win the bet.
1500-2000, that’s quite a number, being held in what I call “enemy territory”.
I am thrilled by this report.
As always love the work Zombie!
I have to agree though given the choices I would have taken the food over the Tea Party event or the Greens. My tummy rules!
Actually,I am rather impressed by the TP turn out.
I spent some time in Napa many, many years ago, and I always thought of it as Boulder without the mountains–pure NoCal loony-land. I just assumed that it has gotten worse over the years.
Not bad, not bad at all.
I’m surprised you didn’t make a note on the “Drink wine not Tea” sign. Highly ironic, since the Green Party did provide tea and the TEA Party was drinking wine.
BTW, I’m not a believer in the whole contrails thing and such, but Agenda 21 is a reality. ICLEI has found it’s way into every city/town/county council where I live. They have even created “Sustainability Manager” as a position. I know it isn’t a thing you cover, but it is something everyone should be concerned about.
Only Californians can call Obama’s election a right-wing shift.
“Smart Meters, and chemtrails! Oy gevalt. Up until this moment, I had only ever seen chemtrail lunacy at left-wing rallies, and was saddened to see the same nuttiness appear at a Tea Party event too. I guess conspiracy theorists know no political boundaries! Interestingly, one of the Green Party speakers back in Veterans’ Park cited this as a point of possible convergence: opposition to Smart Meters can be found on both sides of the political (kook) spectrum, he said. Let’s join forces! Sigh.”
Uh, … didn’t notice the “DEMOCRATS…againstUNagenda21.com” sign, eh?
Aside from which, I can only deduce that you either SUPPORT both Agenda21 AND SmartMeters, or you believe that neither actually exists. Brilliant on both counts. Are you sure YOU weren’t with the “greenies” thay day?
I’m opposed to the U.N. and its “one-world government” fantasies (however unlikely they may be)… but Smart Meters are pretty benign — no evidence they cause any harm — and chemtrails is just a baseless conspiracy theory.
Zombie – as always great photo essay.
“opposition to Smart Meters can be found on both sides of the political (kook) spectrum, he said. Let’s join forces” —
I don’t find opposition to Smart Meters particularly kooky. The concept of a Smart Meter is that the power company gets control of powering up/down the devices in your house. It is supposed to help a power company not having a complete blackout/brownout or need rolling blackout or brownouts (instead shutting off appliances in peoples houses to make up for the difference). But it is giving more control of your things over to a third party. The idea that the gov’t (various levels) would then take control (or more likely pass regulation on power company for ‘conservation’ or other reasons) seems plausable.
How does a power company save on emissions? They shut off your computer and coffee maker.
The only reason this conversation about smart meters is happening b/c new reliable power sources aren’t being built to satisify increasing demand.
Utility companies can shut off your power if they choose to, and they don’t need a Smart Meter to do it. They just disconnect the line. And if there were to be rolling blackouts, whole neighborhoods would be turned off, and that doesn’t require a Smart Meter either. All Smart Meters do is allow the companies to spread the rolling blackouts evenly throughout the region, house by house rather than neighborhood by neighborhood.
Look, there are three phobias about Smart Meters:
1. They emit unknown radio waves and/or radiation that could be harmful;
2. They allow the utility company to turn off your power in the case of shortages;
3. They allow the utility company to cheat you and charge you more.
It is my belief that reasons 2 and 3 are just smokescreens, and that the real reason people join the anti-Smart Meter brigade is always Reason 1 — which is not based on measurable reality. The other two justifications are just reasonable sounding coverups of the real reason, which is just the same phobia of the unknown.
Sorry, I’m just not sold on the SmartMeter scare tactics.
You forgot reason 4.
4. They might be hacked by some enviroterrorist who will shut off your electricity.
As a person in the IT field and knowing how low local government employee standards are, I would be most wary of issue 4.
Then there could also be reason 5.
5. Vindictive government employee shutting off people who disagrees with his politics. (See: Joe the Plumber)
I throw in town employees in the mix, because since the town I live in is pushing through the change (and paying money that won’t be recouped), I’m guessing they might have some sort of connection to the meters.
It is true the utility company can always shut down the power to block, or the house – but the authority ends outside your front door. Smart Meter might be house by house – which by itself if the whole house is shut down, it is the utility company’s choice not to sell you gas/electricity. My concern is couples with Smart Meters linking into ‘Smart Appliances’ as well (as the earlier comments talk about specific appliances).
Clearly it is in a utility company’s best interest to have consumer using as much power as the company can provide (greater sale, more revenue). The problem with a Smart Appliance/Smart Meter is by having them in place it is defacto/default consent. Police can’t enter your house w/o invitation or warrant, why should a power company exercise control within one’s own domain. It is not that I think the power company would meddle in the running of appliances, but it does set up a system that can be abused later.
Again, a system with both a Smart Meter/Appliance setup is ripe for abuse from gov’t regulations on a company. Say a gov’t reg wants a reduction in emissions from a utility by 10% over the next 5 years (or something of the like). It is near impossible for the utility to build a new power plant of gas or nuclear which would cover the increase demand, or replace the older plant (and thereby reducing emissions), so the alternative is to fight it in court, and use this smart meter/appliance system to allow the company to produce less power (less emissions), and cutting power to specific devices to make up for the shortage.
True, the utility could do rolling black/brown outs to make up the difference, but there is greater public backlash to that action.
I’m not scared of it, I’m concerned by it as it could lead to a privacy/control breach, as well as the possibility of it being used to cover infrastructure problems. If it were only a Smart Meter (house shut off, but not past the front door), and each individual deciding the coding within their own internal house system (much as each person sets their own thermostat) I might agree to that.
My electric company constantly sends me fliers trying to get me to agree to the smart meter. Sorry, no go. I and I alone will determine how much electricty I will use, and I will pay the bill. Now, if they start paying my bills then that is a different issue.
The reason for blackouts is because governments refuse issuing permits and worthless “environmental” organizations block the building of new power plants that actually work as advertised, i.e. coal, nat gas, nuke, hydro. Rather than submit to the idiocy that is “smart meters/grid” I fight it and refuse to donate or elect those who even give consideration to the idea. There is nothing smart about the smart meter/grid as it ignores the core problem, lack of sufficient power generation.
If one truly wants what is best for this nation, support more plants, for cheap electricity is one of the key ingredients to a healthy job environment.
Could it be that the Greenies purposely stayed away from the fair grounds because they instinctively avoid venues where they’ll be confronted with evidence that the Tea Party is not made up of racists and homophobes? Leftists hate to have their fondest delusions deflated. They incessantly refer to Tea Party rally signs covered with racist slurs, despite not being able to reliably document any proof.
Zombie, your piece was wonderful. Please keep doing what you’re doing. Whenever I see your name I stop to read and view your work.
I was amused at the attractive young thing whose banner denigrates her “delusional grandparents.” It’s always refreshing to learn of someone who has acquired more knowledge and wisdom in 20 years or so than her elders have managed to come by in 80, but hey — if she says so . . . . You have to admit, though, that although she’s no Sarah Palin, she is unusually cute for a leftist.
I was also impressed by the absence of trash, even on the greenieunion sides. This is unusual for leftists, who are generally known to strew their physical garbage even more generously than their intellectual refuse. Good work, people!
The Greens actually announced ahead of time that it would be a “zero-waste” event, so they couldn’t very well leave garbage behind having already made that promise. Also, I think they never were able to get a permit from the city, so they had to refrain from leaving a mess lest they provoke the ire of the city.
As for the girl with the “delusional” sign — I recommend you update your optician’s prescription.
I think that one image pretty much sums up the young Leftists in our country today. Seems like — to them — its all about doing a ‘nyah nyah’ to their elders. Also I love the one next to her with the barely legible ‘Tea Party is Racist HURR DURR’ sign. Did she think that up all on her own? And in her other hand ‘Kill All Humans.’ Uhhh… ooooookay. The young Left — they don’t know what the hell to believe in.
So glad that you take me places that I will never be able to go
The reason that there were not many people at the Green gathering at Veterans Park is that for whatever reason most people gathered around the corner on Third Between Coombs and Randolph in that big parking lot. Police estimate of the crowd was 2 hundred which I concur with. There are no photos in this report that show the whole crowd.
And that guy with the Scooby Doo T shirt and wild pants is Bobby. I have known Bobby for over thirty years. I can pretty much guarantee that he is not a member of the Green Party. He is a severely mentally disabled man who has wandered around Napa for decades just showing up wherever something is happening. He was just there looking for something to do.
Zombie said in the essay that he/she welcomes any photographic evidence contradicting or confirming any of the crowd estimate claims.
Sure, you can say 200 if you want, but it’s par for the course for activists to exaggerate their own numbers, and downplay the other side’s numbers. So unless you can provide some kind of proof or evidence of your claim, it’s just going to be relegated to the “he said/she said” category of unverifiable and thus pointless statements.
Zombie had plenty of pictures AND videos backing up the estimates. Where are YOUR pictures to back up your estimate? The Greens’ own video showed about 45 people. 200 is still a pretty tiny number for a protest, so it’s not outside the realm of possibility that you’re right, but without real evidence, no one (except for other Green activists) is going to believe you
http://napavalleyregister.com/news/local/protesters-march-against-tea-party-express/article_f0703f88-d128-11e0-8273-001cc4c002e0.html
Yes, we already know about that article with its 200 estimate, because the article’s estimate is the very thing that started Zombie’s discussion of crowd sizes. It’s linked to in the essay. And the article’s photo is discussed above as well, where Zombie says “all I could come up with was this image showing the elusive combined union/Green counter-protest that I somehow managed to miss, showing 45 protesters grouped together and ready to march.”
Instead of linking to something we’ve already seen, how about a link to a photo or video that really shows the claimed 200 or 300, or at least something close to that?
I’m not saying that 200 is necessarily impossible; I just need proof before I believe it. Inflated crowd estimates are a standard political tactic by now.
Slight correction. “This little guy” is my little *girl*.
Ooops! Sorry about that. I have now fixed it to say “gal”!
This kind of issues can be easily solved by data from cellphones providers
Nasty, I have no idea who you are and feel no need to prove anything to you. The police and the Napa Register, neither of whom could be described as biased, estimated 200. You admit that this is possible. The photos and videos show it to be possible.
The real question here needs to be why you accept zombies version of events. Let’s have a look at them.
I arrived at 9 AM at the staging area for the protest march. By 9:30 there was a significant number of people there. I think that 200 would be a good estimate. Just before 10 we all headed out to the east up Third St. directly past the Green rally to make the 3 block walk to the the fair grounds. At Burnell we turned right and walked two blocks to the demonstration site arriving shortly after 10. The video shows us walking up Burnell.
The demonstration was at its most active between that time and around noon when people started to drift away. By 1PM the numbers had significantly declined.
Zombie arrived at 11 and went straight to the Green rally site which by this time most people had left. Zombie then says “it quickly became obvious that the planned march on the Tea Party event wasn’t going to happen any time soon”, not realizing that she had completely missed it.
She then headed for the fairgrounds, PASSING SOME OF THE DEMONSTRATORS WHO HAD ALREADY LEFT THE RALLY THAT SHE HAD MISSED!!! She walked up Third St, failed to turn right at Burnell which all the rest of us had done and apparently failed to even looked to the right up Burnell where if she has she would have seen the demonstration. She instead went to the front gate on Third St. where she found a small group of union members.
She had completely missed the anti-Tea Party rally. And she even admits it. She the decides that there were two separate counter demonstrations both unaware of each other. In fact we were all completely aware of each other, we had assembled one block apart, and many of the Greens were at the fair grounds with the main group of demonstrators.
How can her estimates of the protest crowd size be credible? She shows a photo of the crowd in which she counts 45 people but it does not show the whole crowd. Is she serious? She shows a video of the march and counts 45 people but it does not show either the beginning or end of the march. She then demands that someone show here the other 255 people even though that estimate of 300 people came from only one person and is not supported anywhere else. She then incredibly, after counting 500 people at the Tea Party rally, estimates that there were 2000 people there!!! The highest estimate that I have seen anywhere including the police and the media was 600. Be clear that with the photo of the Tea Party rally she has no problem including people supposedly outside of the picture in her estimate. Not so with the protest rally photos even though it is completely clear that they do not show the whole crowd.
She then heads back to the Green rally site, again missing seeing the actual protest rally, and eventually heads back to the fairgrounds where she finally sees the protest rally saying finally “the Green invasion had begun” not knowing that by this time the size of the rally had significantly declined.
And yes we were behind a fence. That was the only possible place that we could gather that made the Tea Party aware of our presence. We did not like being behind the fence but the only other option was to actually go into the fairgrounds and we all knew that would be way too confrontational. None of us wanted that kind of confrontation. And how does she claim that only a handful of Tea Partiers knew we were there? Many of them came over to confront us. They all knew that we were there.
Zombies suggestion that the Tea Party is not racist or homophobic because she didn’t see any of it there is simply laughable. Racist, homophobic people hide their racism and homophobia. Maybe zombie doesn’t know that.
Her analysis of her photo of the demonstrators and the police cars is pathetic. She still does not seem to be aware that she missed most of the rally and that by the time she took this photo most of the demonstrators had left. And the police had not “shunted” us anywhere. The police took no control at all over where we congregated. We could come and go where we pleased and could have even gone inside the fairgrounds if we had wanted to. The police were actually great and had made it clear before we even left the staging area that they were there to protect us and they told us how to indicate to them if we need their help. The police did not “release” us. we just left.
If there is only one clue that most illustrates zombies sloppiness in reporting this event it would be her hilarious decision that Bobby was a Green part member. Everybody in Napa knows Bobby. He is known to be a sweet, harmless, somewhat befuddled guy who is daily seen walking the streets of Napa. I promise you, he doesn’t know the Green Party from a birthday party.
So, are you planning to learn English?
Why go to the trouble for people who can’t understand it?
SmartMeters have become something of a popular irritant here in California. Many bills doubled and tripled with them. While I dislike the association with the other issues, it does have political potential.
Ultimately, the intent of smart meters is to ration the use of electricity by consumers. It is related to the proposal for remote controlled thermostats the California Energy Commission put forward about 4 years ago. That idea went down in flames due to almost universal public opposition.
The rationale for rationing is the intermitency of wind and solar which California is planning on relying on for 33% of our juice. When they get that much of the market, there will be many times when there is not enough electricity to go around. The state will then literally turn off your appliances, air conditioners, and whatnot.
Smart Meters are another bad liberal idea and should be opposed.
The “pissing off my grandparents” chick is a case study.
1. She’s attended an entire semester a UC Berkeley, so of course she’s so much wiser than those elderly dolts who wasted their time working for a living.
2. If she paid $5.99 for that sheet of card stock, then we know everything we need to know about her grasp of economics to explain her politics.
3. Combine her cluelessness with her smug and ignorant self-righteousness and you have the Left in a nutshell.
My favorite Green Party sign was the No Tea Party Stop The War Machine.
Um, who do they think is presiding over the six wars – Iraq, Afghanistan (record death toll), Yemen, Pakistan, Somalia, Libya – we’re in now? No wonder no one shows for these Leftist rallies. They’re totally nuts and fixated on blaming Reagan, Bush, Palin, Cheney, and the TEA Party for everything. Never do they admit that Obama – the very best candidate the Left could ever have – has completely thrown them under the bus.
zombie, east coast paging zombie, …
–
Sept. 17, 2011: Day 1 of Anarchists’ Attempt to Ignite America
…
The goal appears to be to bring the Arab Spring and European-style mob action stateside. While various websites related to the events call for “peaceful” protests against government and business, the website names contain words such as “rage” and “revolution.”
…
One of the event’s websites attempts to define the mission: “On the 17th of September, we want to see 20,000 people to flood into lower Manhattan, set up tents, kitchens, peaceful barricades, and occupy Wall Street for a few months. Once there, we shall incessantly repeat one simple demand in a plurality of voices and we will not leave until that demand has been met. Like our brothers and sisters in Egypt, Greece, Spain and Iceland, we plan to use the revolutionary Arab Spring tactic of mass occupation to restore democracy in America. We also encourage the use of nonviolence to achieve our ends and maximize the safety of all participants.”
What is their almighty “one demand,” you ask? They haven’t decided yet, but are conducting a poll and will keep us apprised.
…
Oh, I know all about it, and have known for months. Zombie agents are spreading out across America as we speak!
http://www.adbusters.org/campaigns/occupywallstreet
Well, I see this is a sponsored revolution, and you should have your own local SF chapter without traveling east your own self.
I don’t see any listed for Lost Angels, boo hoo, are we already so fallen that we can’t have any here? Or has carmageddon left us exhausted?
Zombie you are the bestblogger/journalist covering events from political ralliies,union strikes and gay contests. THANKS FOR COVERVERING THE TRUTH IN CALIFORNIA.
Zombie,
Re: the Liberty Forum nonsense, don’t you realize that if you move far enough left or far enough right on the political spectrum you end up at the same place.
What place is that you ask? Alien mind control.
You ought to set up a cheap balloon camera, to take some aerial crowd shots. I was googling around and didn’t find much out there.
http://lindholm.jp/chpro_bal.html
I would try a helmet cam designed for xtreme sports. They are durable and take decent shots while moving. You might find one that can wi-fi the shots to a mobile device. The ideal setup would be the total size of a fanny pack, including a small helium tank, tether line/spool, camera/holder, and a few spare balloons. A small remote valve to release excess helium and/or controlled decent would make it easy to take down.
One source is Contour
http://contour.com/
Just a thought. and maybe it could be a standard feature if these get cheap enough to launch an ‘event balloon’ for crowd-sizing, recovery optional.