In our segment, “We the Tweeple,” we always talk about the stories you can’t stop buzzing about on social media. But, on Monday, this segment was bumped from the show due to breaking news. Here’s a quick round-up of the hottest stories online from the start of the week.
The hashtag #bundyranch has been trending for days, due to a standoff between a Nevada rancher and the Feds. Now the story has broached the mainstream.
Rancher Cliven Bundy first drew attention when the Bureau of Land Management started rounding up hundreds of his cattle last week after he failed to pay federal grazing fees for 20 years.
This conflict drew hundreds of armed supporters to come to Cliven’s aid over the weekend. Many have been picketing on the lands for months — which in reality are federally owned.
Bundy supporters on the right also launched an impromptu social media campaign with hashtags like #AmericanSpring. They saw this as a revolution of sorts againt leftist government.
One person tweeted, quote: “The awkward moment when the government sends more personnel to the Bundy Ranch over some cows than they did in Benghazi.”
This led some on the left to jump in with tweets like this: “Can’t wait until the Bundy Ranch people defend my right to graze my cattle in Central Park, because freedom.”
The Bureau of Land Management returned Bundy’s cattle on Saturday, fearing violence from his supporters. There is still no resolution.
Now, from a standoff, to a conspiracy…
April 15 is a day of curious coincidences. It’s Tax Day. And it’s a day in a week of palindrome dates. (Look it up.)
But it also marks the first of four “blood moon” eclipses over North America in the next six months.
Conspiracy theorists such as televangelist John Hagee believe this is an omen of the end of the world. He’s detailed how we can prepare for what people are ominously calling “the tetrad” in his book, “Blood Moons.”
And some of you are tweeting unusual ideas, like this: “If the blood moon prophecy holds true, we will see a war break out between Israel and another country within the next 24 hours.” Probably not. But scary! Now from scary, to deadly… Game of Thrones took over the Twitterverse on Sunday as usual. But instead of being shocked and appalled, you were shocked with delight. This is a major spoiler alert, so please click away if you don’t want to hear the bad-slash-good news. But on Sunday many of you could not stop buzzing about the Purple Wedding on the show, which saw the demise of the hated character, King Joffrey. Some of you virtually squealed with happiness when this occurred, like this fellow who tweeted: “Thank God! That piece of garbage King Joffery is dead! Finally something to be happy about on Game of Thrones! I’m ecstatic right now!” That pretty much sums up the universal response on social media. And people still can’t stop talking about it even today, as the numerous articles about what this event may mean for the future of the show continue to be published this week. You can join the conversaton about these topics and more with fellow #reiders on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and msnbc.com — and keep telling us what’s important to you.
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