Ammon Bundy arrested on contempt charge

Ammon Bundy defamed a hospital and made it close down temporarily due to targeted harassment. He lost a suit and now has to pay millions of dollars. And he is fooling around with his assets to avoid paying them. I became aware of him because of the Bunkerville standoff. Because his family's ranch were a bunch of deadbeats over grazing fees and decided it was WAR! And then later, there was the Malheur occupation. The family is, you might say, an environmental issue. 

He's not exactly a folk hero. Right-wing people do love their myths, though. I remember when they wanted to make LaVoy Finicum into a martyr, I guess the way they want to with Ashli Babbitt or Craig Robertson. 

The history of right-wing extremist militia-affiliated people just walking away after making a threat of themselves doesn't seem to set a good example. It's an example that they can use to try to accelerate their antisocial behavior. 

Anyway, the usual characters will be out defending him saying The Man is only on his case for "being a conservative." And some people will buy that because deep down, they like the idea of some people getting to be outlaws, when what they are is armed pests. Ammon Bundy threatened the judge in this past case, just like he has in other cases:

In a July 9th open letter posted online, Bundy directly addressed Baskin, alluding to potential violence should she rule in favor of St. Luke’s.  

“Please do not sanction a war that may end in innocent blood and require others to bring justice upon those who are responsible for shedding it,” he wrote.  

Bundy has also complained about other judges in his previous cases, always calling them out by name and sometimes encouraging his followers to go to their homes. 

 Bundy ran for governor of Idaho, once. He lost, but there are people in this country who could really see a man like that being president. It really does make you think.

All That and A Bag of Dicks

I'm not sure why Jon Ritzheimer feels like the receipt of bags and boxes of simulated penises instead of throw rugs and vanilla coffee creamer is somehow hateful. Why, in the right hands, dildos are downright friendly and engaging. It is possible that he is disappointed that none of the edible variety of dick received thus far has been "salted dicks", which is considered to be the gold standard of phallic dining, but clearly, from images we have seen of the Malheureux Militia, high blood pressure is undoubtedly a concern and a reduction of sodium is specifically indicated by the medical community.

The senders clearly have their best interests in mind, n'est-ce pas?

Speaking of "best interests", it seems the local community doesn't really think the occupiers of the federal wildlife sanctuary are acting in anyone's best interest. They might be talking freedom, but they are resulting in the opposite of that.

So, if the militia folks are even the least bit curious about how a mess of wags decided that various sex toys was the appropriate way to express their disapproval of what the armed and under-provisioned masses were trying to do, might I suggest that they determined that the general areas of insertion of a dildo coincided with where, anatomically, the popular imagination determined the individual brains of Bundy militants to be? And, following that metaphor, the militants might be being invited to cudgel their brains, so to speak, to see exactly how they have gotten the pulse of this thing all wrong.

Confused Gunowners Seize Wildlife Refuge, Say Things

It looks like a couple of the Bundy family and 140-something of their buddies are "occupying" the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge and double-dog-daring the federal government to shoot at them. They would also like "patriots" who also hate the federal government to come join them.

This is after, of course, they got turned down for offering "help" to Dwight and Steven Hammond who are facing prison sentences for arson on public land. And after local folks didn't seem too eager to protest with them. But they are acting, in their own belief, as "the tip of the spear" against government tyranny.

That's nice. The government has not cracked down on them as yet for the same reason they didn't rain hell on them back at the Bundy ranch.

It would give them too much satisfaction.

They've also said some stuff about how they will hold this headquarters for years. I guess if the power is cut and they can do something about the water supply, given they are as well-provisioned with food as a moderately-big college kegger, we'll have to see about that.

While it doesn't seem fair that these yahoos can wave around guns and pretend they are putting on a rebellion when unarmed people protest in urban areas and get hit with tear gas and rubber bullets and the like, frankly, I'm old enough to remember Ruby Ridge and Waco, and if these guys get promoted to glory courtesy the USG,  right-wing militia types will be martyrbating over it forever.

You Say You Want a Revolution? Well. You know.

When Jerad and Amanda Miller cried "Revolution!" and let slip the dogs of something less than war, they had a plan, of sorts.

Kelley Fielder lived next door to the Millers and called them her “best friends.” She said she didn’t know they were “that crazy.”

She was holding documents for the couple that included detailed plans to take over a courthouse and execute public officials. The file box full of documents, along with three empty rifle cases and an empty box for handcuffs, were confiscated by investigators during a search of Fielder’s apartment.

The reported plans by the killers to take over a courthouse prompted officials at the Regional Justice Center to adopt “a heightened state of security,” with added personnel and “other measures,” according to Court Information Officer Mary Ann Price. She declined to say how many additional marshals were added to the courthouse detail or give any information about extra steps that had been taken, saying “part of our preparedness is not giving out a lot of details.”

These were definitely some very busy jackasses. They apparently went all in for Cliven Bundy, but the militia rejected Jerad because he was a convicted felon. He pointed out, sensibly enough, that by threatening BLM officers with guns, they all were kind of felonious, really. Jerad Miller also posted at Infowars, and interestingly enough, Alex Jones is now maintaining that the couple is definitely a false flag. Well if that's the case, then Jones must realize he was infiltrated years ago, and everybody just better take anything they read there, of all places, with a grain of salt, huh?

Cecily McMillan Sentenced to 90 days, time served, 5 yrs probation.

I really don't know what to make of sentencing where the thing I think is--I'm happy it wasn't worse, where, in another part of my mind, I am also thinking--how did she even get charged in the first place?

See, in my mind she was just reacting to being handled roughly by the police. And I don't know that just reacting is a criminal offense. But she did hit the cop, so...uh.

Shit, I wonder what the guys harassing people down at Bundy Ranch might get charged with if they start hassling "the man" physically.

Just saying.

Oath Breakers and the Command Structure of Bundy Ranch

Now, I don't think you could do more justice to the general disarray of the various groups under #TeamBundy than my fellow Rumproast blogger Bette Noir's overview,but I just want to post a riff about that one inside video:

The whole damn thing has been a killzone since Day One, and these Oath Keeper folks who left are subject to not being allowed back and also some pretty nasty Facebook posts. And some of those guys are provocateurs, because they can't be trusted which means they should be distrusted--got all that? This idea that there might be people afoot to undermine the tribe at Camp Bundy is probably part of the freedom-loving checkpoints they've set up to make sure that all the local through-traffic is actually local people. I actually think "doing nothing" is the most sensible strategy the government can have with these folks. Their mind-created monsters are bad enough, and may have them do more than enough harm.

Can Cliven Bundy Rebrand Himself?

Sure, if the iron is hot enough.

I am being facetious, naturally. 

I just want to say something about the American racist, which is--seriously, bigots have got to drop comparing themselves to Rosa Parks or Martin Luther King, Jr.  But also, they may not want to comment upon what people were or were not able to accomplish in their lives like this:

BUNDY: I took this boot off so I wouldn’t put my foot in my mouth with the boot on. Let me see if I can say something. Maybe I sinned and maybe I need to ask forgiveness and maybe I don’t know what I actually said. But you know, when you talk about prejudice, we’re talking about not being able to exercise what we think and our feelings. We don’t have freedom to say what we want. If I call — if I say negro or black boy or slave, I’m not — if those people cannot take those kind of words and not be offended, then Martin Luther King hasn’t got his job done then yet. They should be able to — I should be able to say those things and they shouldn’t offend anybody. I didn’t mean to offend them.

No. For one thing, as to what MLK was able to accomplish--well, his work was cut short you know.  But if Cliven Bundy has the right to say "negro or black boy or slave"--then people must have the right to feel some way about that, don't they? And sure enough--they may say so. Just like Cliven Bundy gets to pop off at his uneducated mouth, people with sense may notice that what he was saying was that his idea of the "negro" or possibly, if one wasn't frozen in a landslide circa 1950, black people, are, because of his experience of a ride-by in a neighborhood of ethnicity this one time--during which I am sure his car rolled through "Stop" signs, when he saw some old people (we call them retirees when they are white) and some young people (possibly just out of school--maybe even the grandkids of your retired black older persons) and thought to himself--"They are so idle, they must be doing all the bad things--is there not cotton for them to pick?", so get this--he thinks slavery is better than now.

So...Let Me Get This Straight

All these folks have rushed to defend the "little guy being picked on by big government" but the basis of his claims to the land might not actually be true?

This makes me skeptical about other things. I don't think this is about cattle or turtles. It's about whether laws mean anything. I keep hearing "sovereign citizen" language that implies that maybe this is a nation of men, not laws. And I keep hearing this promoted by Sean Hannity who I suspect of being a shit-stirrer. And other people notice, too.

It genuinely does remind me of the kind of rhetoric from twenty years ago from ol' G. Gordon Liddy:

• August 26, 1994: Now if the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms comes to disarm you and they are bearing arms, resist them with arms. Go for a head shot; they're going to be wearing bulletproof vests." … "They've got a big target on there, ATF. Don't shoot at that, because they've got a vest on underneath that. Head shots, head shots.... Kill the sons of bitches.^[1}

There are some people who seem to want to root for a bad outcome. And I don't think they care what starts it all, so long as it starts.

These People Worry Me.

This Bundy Ranch thing is really taking me back to the heady, Ruby Ridge/Waco days of spooky mid-90's militia/black helicopter wackiness. I get that there's a kind of underdog appeal to the idea of an ornery old coot who is just trying to pasture his cattle! Same as his ancestors did! Ain't that America! But give me an ever loving break, here--this is not about freedom--it's about license. My POV about this guy's actions pretty much does coincide with the BLM's position as well as that of local conservationists:

“Mr. Bundy has long falsely believed that Gold Butte is his ranch,” said Terri Robertson, long-time advocate for protecting the rich cultural and natural resources of Gold Butte and currently president of Friends of Sloan Canyon. “We all know that is not the reality, and it is time for him for obey the law.” 

“Mr. Bundy's defiance of the law and decades-long free grazing on public lands is a poke in the eye of every rancher who rightfully pays for their use of the public lands, and a further thumb of the nose to those responsible, progressive ranchers who graze sustainably, allowing for threatened species to survive on their allotments,” said Karen Boeger, a former BLM advisory committee member. 

The BLM estimates several hundred thousand dollars in unpaid grazing fees and penalties are due, not to mention the hundreds of thousands of dollars the BLM and NPS have spent monitoring and addressing the ongoing problem of the trespass cattle. 

“From the standpoint of wildlife, the springs and riparian areas in Gold Butte are vital,” said Red Rock Audubon’s conservation chairman John Hiatt. “The most immediate result of the removal of the trespass cattle will be the recovery of the vegetation around these water sources which will benefit all wildlife species.”

Basically--he's a freeloader. He's grazing his cattle, for free, on government land and profiting off of them. What if everybody did the same thing?