Over the summer, the U.S. military is launching a training exercise called “Jade Helm 15,” which ordinarily wouldn’t generate any headlines at all. It’s a series of training drills throughout the Southwest, from Texas to California, for about 1,200 special operations personnel, including Green Berets and Navy SEALs.The "pandering to idiots" line -- which I believe should become the slogan for the Republican Party generally -- came from Todd Smith, a GOP veteran of the Texas legislature who retired in 2013. Gov. Greg Abbott (R-Of Course) ordered the Texas State Guard to “monitor” the military exercises in order to keep tabs on the operation and to ensure Texans that “their safety, constitutional rights, private property rights and civil liberties will not be infringed.” Former representative Smith was none too pleased by all the idiocy:
In some right-wing circles, however, “Jade Helm 15” is the basis for an extraordinary conspiracy theory. The idea gets a little convoluted – fringe theories often are – but the unhinged activists apparently believe the Obama administration, in conjunction with the U.S. military and Wal-Mart, is planning to impose martial law on much of the country. As they see it, the plan also includes gun confiscation and “secret underground tunnels.”
[Smith] said he is “horrified that I have to choose between the possibility that my Governor actually believes this stuff and the possibility that my Governor doesn’t have the backbone to stand up to those who do.” He said he wrote because the thought that the U.S. military would be a threat to Texas is “embarrassing” and it is important “to rational governance that thinking Republicans call you out on it.”Both the Pentagon and Wal-Mart have issued statements dismissing these rumors, which should put an end to all this conspiracy talk.
“Is there ANYBODY who is going to stand up to this radical nonsense that is a cancer on our State and our Party?” Smith asked.
I'm kidding, of course.
UPDATE: Jon Stewart weighs in (at 5:35):
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