Sunday, April 13, 2014
NEW VILLAGE VOICE COLUMN UP...
...about the Bundy Ranch shenanigans and rightblogger reactions. I'm not sure which is the most fun part: watching the smaller bloggers holler for moar armed insurrection, or watching the top dogs trying not to get too far ahead of the curve lest they lose their shot at a walled garden at the Washington Post after this whole thing blows over.
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Conservatives line up in support of deadbeat, film at 11.
ReplyDeleteI don't see why they'd pull their punches here. After all, this is exactly the kind of "Second Amendment remedies" that so many have been clamoring for for years.
ReplyDeleteArmed insurrection against the government of the United States? Let none dare call it treason! As always, they are the true patriots who love America, but despise its government and the people who live there.
I guess it's all good as long as said deadbeat is 1) White, and 2) toting a gun. Actually, I think No. 1 is the overriding factor.
ReplyDeleteBlind obedience to the flag is so 2007. This season, it's all about kissing up to the rich. But don't throw away that jingoism just yet - like any good trend, this one is cyclical.
ReplyDeleteThe headline suggesting that the BLM is "stealing his land" is quite amusing.
ReplyDeleteKind of verifies Tom Paine's observation that a "long habit of not thinking a thing wrong gives it a superficial appearance of being right," which is sort of how Bundy has come to view the land in question. His long habit of not paying the lease to the BLM has given it the superficial appearance that it belongs to him.
The last half of the quote is just as applicable: "... and raises at first a formidable outcry in defense of custom. But the tumult soon subsides. Time makes more converts than reason."
This will not be like the militias and white supremacists flocking to the Arizona border in defense of Joe Arpaio. There are no Mexicans to shoot.
No Mexicans, but never underestimate the very strong streak of anti-government sentiment out there. These people really do fancy themselves as self-made rugged men o' the West who did it all without any government help--indeed, did it all despite the government's efforts to hold them down.
ReplyDeleteAs for all the free land, free water, free highways, farm and agriculture subsidies, and the rest of the federal goody bag that keeps these idiots from going bankrupt, well, we'll just sorta skip that part of it.
Stuff like this really makes me wistful for the Freemen-on-the-Land, the British wackadoos who started this whole thing. Sure, they're equally crazy, but in less disturbing and much more amusing ways. One of them gets caught speeding or growing pot, and does he pull a gun? No. He launches into a fifteen-minute speech on the definition of "understand," and it's hilarious. Ah, to have a group of right-wing separatists who are only a threat to Black's Law...
ReplyDeleteFrom what I hear, Alaska's the worst in that regard. Nothing says "independence" like taking six dollars out for every buck you put in.
ReplyDeleteBecause they're cowards. The whole movement is basically Internet Tough Guy syndrome run wild. They basically sat on their asses in the desert for a few days, but I'm sure this will go down in wingnut lore as a courageous show of resistance that altered the course of history, because their self-image is more puffed up than an overcooked biscuit.
ReplyDeleteMany years and a prior career ago, I worked for the feds while I was getting a BS and MS in geology, so you know, out and about in the middle of western dirt road nowhere driving a vehicle with fed plates. I didn't work for a regulatory agency, but by far the scariest, creepiest people I ran into were backwoods nuts like the Bundy's. I got to the point that when I heard other people approaching while working away from my vehicle that I'd just hide in the woods and hope for the best.
ReplyDeleteMy experiences were from around the same time as the Sagebrush Rebellion, where the common clay of the land decided they wanted what Bundy wants: unfettered land use and access, fuck the environment and overgrazing is a gawd-given right. This prior incarnation died out when it became obvious that paying free market rates was many, many multiples of what the federal grazing fees were. It was also when a few BLM employees experienced the fun, fun, fun of having bullet holes suddenly appear in their vehicles while they were driving them. Someone is going to get killed this time because the nut factor is so much higher, and I have no doubt it will be someone just driving around in their fedmobile doing their job and who just happens to be in the wrong place, wrong time, etc.
It may be internet tough guy syndrome, but I know my western wingnut, subspecies 'armedtotheteethicus', and sniper rifles are real popular out here. BLM vehicles took sniper fire in the 1980's, and the crazy is significantly higher this time around, as is the available firepower.
ReplyDeleteThe feds aren't done with Bundy, they're just exploring other options. I'm hoping for less confrontation, more legal seizure of all assets via the courts so it drags out a bit and the amateur crazies go home, leaving the truly dangerous easier to ID and surround effectively.
Not only would Reid commit these heinous acts of treason, but he would take jobs from American workers and American companies and give them them to the Communist Chinese,
ReplyDeleteManufacturing jobs have been migrating to China and other points east at a steady clip for a good quarter century now. Who knew that Harry Reid got around so much?
I'm doubtful this is going to generate a shooting war. What these assholes remember about Ruby Ridge and Waco is that, even if the government's response was excessive, ill-planned and poorly executed, the end result still lopsided went to the government.
ReplyDeleteI'm betting that many of the volunteers were there to show their presence, and with some mixed motives. These encounters are always good for fundraising and membership drives. Do I doubt that a few among them are hotheaded and inclined to do something stupid? Not at all. But, the fact that the confrontation didn't begin the war does indicate that this is not the ground many of them wanted to die on.
It also probably helps if the President isn't.
ReplyDeleteAnd this seems to gloss over the fact that those jobs weren't "taken from" American companies--it was the companies themselves that moved those jobs overseas, and pretty eagerly, too, I'd say.
ReplyDeleteVery much so, yes. If it turned out that these companies weren't looking at short term profits but instead had their hand forced by some kind of Maoist/Democrat alliance, well, that would be something.
ReplyDeleteIIRC, Alaska's relatively solvent cause Oil. Same with Texas. Every other red state, however, is a government debtor, and every blue state (save maybe a Maine or an Iowa here and there) is a creditor. This is perhaps the single most under-emphasized fact in modern fiscal policy: if more people actually knew that, and grasped the implications, conservative mythology about noble hardworking producers vs. urban leeches would be deader than disco.
ReplyDeleteFreeze his bank accounts, sieze whatever he owes from them, then ban him from any further grazing or droving on public land.
ReplyDeleteOnce he's has to reduce his herd to to whatever he can graze on his own land, and feed them on his own dime, then the smug arsehole might come to recognise that the American people were giving him a pretty good deal.
.
What has yet to come out is how much money he's been getting from the Feds for drought payments. Out here in the West, drought compensation pretty much keeps meat and potatoes on the table for a great many cattle ranchers, and some of the biggest complainers in the "wise land use" movement get them (sometimes at about six figures a year).
ReplyDeleteI'd bet that this guy has been getting money from the USDA that the BLM knows nothing about, and in short order is going to look more like a bailed-out banker than an aggrieved citizen under the jackbooted heel of the gummint.
For instance, you could support the Patriots in Nevada by keeping the BLM assets in YOUR AO occupied...
ReplyDeleteNews to soldier boy: You might want to keep other assets in your Area of Operations (Mom's basement & the backyard?) busy beside the heavily-armed BLM. Try keeping the FBI busy for a while.
For example:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A7U5eJN3hLI
Great, this fool Bundy is a seditious Mormon.
ReplyDeleteThree words: Mountain Meadows Massacre.
At TBogg's place, commentor Mike_G dubbed this kerfuffle Apocalypse Cow.
ReplyDeleteI am in the odd position of feeling like a lot of wingnuts seem to feel all the time, while at the same time knowing that those wingnuts (for some strange reason...) aren't feeling like that this time around.
ReplyDeleteThis Bundy is rebelling against lawful authority. That, in the world of me, makes him a dangerous hooligan. A very large part of me (which I am perfectly aware is not a very wise part) is roaring for him to be made an example of, with as much force as may be required. That very large part of me wants him to see what happens when you pull that "I refuse to back down! You just do your worst!" to a government that does not feel the need to be the mature party and just goes "okay, we will!"
Like I said. It's not wise, and it's a very good thing that I'm not in charge, because I'd order in an airstrike. Which would be wrong. It would. I know it. It just feels so very, very right. >_<
Now, would you agree that seems to be how a conservative law & order zealot feels?
So here's the thing - where are those people now? Why aren't they spitting and fuming at this assault on the civilisation that shelters us all? Why doesn't this trigger their society-is-coming-apart-at-the-seams panic mode like it does mine? Do they honestly think that the testosterone-poisoned lunatics with the guns will never come for them?
I suppose they don't. Idiots.
Those meadows aren't going to massacre themselves. I didn't know he was a Mormon until you brought it up, though a name like "Cliven" is a dead giveaway. I wonder if he would have been such a cause celebre if the fundies had known this.
ReplyDelete"Who in the world threatens people with violence and takes their property for a tortoise? Liberals," riddledPrairie Pundit. "Using Snipers To Protect A Tortoise," sneered David Blackmon at Forbes.
ReplyDelete...
"For those who want to stop by and tell me that it's not about the desert tortoise, it's about unpaid fees by the Bundy's, I will respond that Nevada land is considered government land because the desert tortoise resides there," said Maggie's Notebook.
Why do rightwingers hate turtles?
This is BAD NEWS for Mitch McConnell.
Hopefully the feds will rip up those tyrannical government roads when they leave.
ReplyDeleteI've posted this same comment on about a dozen web pages...
Well you know just showing up gives them "street cred" they don't actually have to put thenselvelves in danger. :)
ReplyDeleteWell, there's lots of ironies in the situation, one of the biggest of which is that way back when, 17th-18th century Enlightenment criticisms of authority gave birth to modern liberalism, and 'what gives you the right' type questions have historically been the domain of liberals. Sure, there have always been right-wing reactionary rebels, but the US right now is at a weird moment historically where the far right has started acting like anarchists-the system is corrupt and unfixable, tear it all up and start over, authority is the enemy, etc. which is obviously not small-c conservative in any definition.
ReplyDeleteAnd there's still plenty of liberal arguments for the need, when necessary, to overthrow a repressive or totalitarian government. It is, in fact, a mistake in my opinion to let conservatives own that. The thing is, though, when I say when necessary, I mean it. The Arab Spring was motivated by decade after decade of dictatorial rule. The Ukrainian revolts were fueled by the perception that the government was basically selling out to Putin against the will of a lot of the population. Compare that to the yokels fighting for the right of a wealthy rancher to use public grazing lands whenever he feels like it and never pay for it. Bit of a disconnect.
Yertle the Turtle was a victim of a communist conspiracy.
ReplyDeleteWhy do rightwingers hate turtles?
ReplyDeleteBecause turtles have huge, terrifying dongs.
Two things... First, if "huge, terrifying dongs" doesn't tell you NSFW, I can't help you. Second, I totally called dibs on the band name "Alarming Turtle Dongs".
Hopefully he killed the goose that laid the golden egg.
ReplyDeleteNoted Maoist/Democrat George Herbert Walker Bush granted them "most favored nation" trading status.
ReplyDeleteI'm still concerned that Murrah Bombing 2: Fanatic Boogaloo, is going to happen. It'll probably happen in a red state (like the OKC bombing) and Sean F. Hannity and Glenn Beck will blame it on the President "not keeping us safe from terrorists".
ReplyDeleteBut it might end up being the ground they want to kill on, a crucial distinction.
ReplyDeleteI wonder what could have changed between now and then.
ReplyDeleteI can already hear them braying about "false flags" and other quaint cold war-era spy novella bullshit.
ReplyDelete.
On the other hand, thse two gentle geniuses were also "soverign citizens": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_jk6QiZF6o
ReplyDelete.
I suppose we are just at a strange place in history, because we have actually achieved something resembling semi-benevolent government. Which means that all of a sudden, a lot of people with completly opposite mindsets find themselves on the same side, because the liberals want to defend a society that is at least partly built according to their ideals, and the conservatives (the real ones, that you call "small-c conservatives" and that I think I'm very much one of) think that we should play it safe and stick with what we've got, however imperfect.
ReplyDeleteAnd on the other side, we get the kind of people that each side accused the other of consisting solely of - the anarchists who just want to blow up the world to satisfy their own egos, and the autocrats who want to trample the common man underfoot. They get along surprisingly well, it turns out, as long as the autocrats can keep pointing the anarchists at new things to blow up. :P
The loopier wingnuts convinced themselves years ago that there's Real America and Obama's America, and the latter must be destroyed to save the former. Government employees are part of Obama's America and therefore traitorous dogs (prosecute the IRS and then close it down etc) except when they're not (heroic patriots left to die in Benghazi). It's cognitive dissonance on an unimaginable scale, but that doesn't seem to bother them.
ReplyDeleteYou're right, it will probably blow over this time. But it shouldn't be trivialised. Groupthink can lead to very unpleasant behaviour by people who spend their lives in a state of permanent outrage.
I don't think the militias give much of a crap, esp if they can raise a big ugly stink.
ReplyDeleteAt this stage it seems like only the looniest of the fundies are disturbed at making common cause against the Enlightenment/Feds/Colored Prez w/ both The Church of Latter Day Smiths & the very Whore Of Babylon herself, or at least the Opus Dei wing of bead-rattling.
No white president got any boost during Waco or Ruby Ridge.
ReplyDeleteBZZZT. Assumes facts not in evidence like a straight line between reality and conservative mythology.
ReplyDeleteI think the situation is more analagous to the period right before the first world war. All kinds of posturing and promises made by people who don't think they will ever be called upon to make good on their word. An arms build up. And then an unforseen triggering event leading to disaster. If you cram a bunch of these armed idiots into a bar, get them likkered up, and then someone fires his gun accidentally, its going to get pretty bloody pretty fast.
ReplyDeleteHow does this not jump between BLM and the IRS?
ReplyDeleteMy god thats good.
ReplyDeleteAnd the "Battle" Creek Massacre. Brigham Young and the Deseret Militia were the 19th century's Manson Family without the dune buggies.
ReplyDeletehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_Creek,_Utah
They've got dune buggies and automatic weapons now.
Fuck that shit.
It took a black president to make the fundies and Mormons realize they were shat out of the same grift.
ReplyDeleteBundy claims his herd of roughly 900 cattle have grazed on the land along the riverbed near Bunkerville since 1870...
ReplyDeleteI've heard of aged beef before but 144 years? You'd think those cows'd be kinda off the hoof by now. Then again, a close inspection of the interior of a White Castle slider shows something long past its prime, so Bundy Burger it may be.
Yeah, they want to be portrayed as rugged cowpokes livin' free like the glorious lone rangers of yesteryear -- i.e., 1950's Hollywood -- but when you get down to it, these Welfare Waynes would be high and dry without a government teat to suck.
ReplyDeleteI'm trademarking the Cow Clucks Clan™.
ReplyDelete~
Being an unserious jerk, when I first read "the Bundy ranch" my first thought was "Ted or Al?" which conjures up two completely different scenarios. I don't have any hard and fast principles, so I'd be rooting for Al.
ReplyDelete"Bundy claims his herd of roughly 900 cattle have grazed on the land along the riverbed near Bunkerville since 1870... "
ReplyDeleteSo they're claiming rights based on historical precedent, eh? Golly... I hope the Native Americans aren't paying attention...
I dunno, do they really care? Fundies were so anti-Catholic that you couldn't elect one president until a couple generations ago, and now five Catholics, most of them Opus Dei at that, rule our highest judicial body and these people don't even blink.
ReplyDelete"For those who want to stop by and tell me that it's not about the
ReplyDeletedesert tortoise, it's about unpaid fees by the Bundy's, I will respond
that Nevada land is considered government land because the desert
tortoise resides there," said Maggie's Notebook. Now, who can argue with that?"
Well, there you have the entire strategy of wingnut argument in a nutshell:
"Whattaya MEAN, "facts"? This is MY argument, and the rest of you libtards can just SHUT UP!!11!!"
I rather hope that they are.
ReplyDeletewhere are those people now?
ReplyDeleteWaiting for a white non-Democrat to become POTUS. (Race doesn't play into it this much, maybe because these yahoos think that there aren't that many brothers out West, but they gave Clinton similar amounts of shit over Waco and Ruby Ridge.)
Yes, the "call to arms" to attack "other assets" of the government made me immediately think of some poor file clerk in Tulsa or Lexington or Fresno becoming the victim of some right wing nut case defending Mr. Bundy.
ReplyDeleteTrue - this incident will give them all bragging rights back home in their cubicles with their more liberal coworkers.
ReplyDeleteBut Bundy hasn't paid his fees since 1993,
ReplyDeleteafter the federal Bureau of Land Management (BLM) took over collection
from Clark County, with Bundy "arguing in court," per the Los Angeles Times, "that his Mormon ancestors worked the land long before the BLM was formed, giving him rights that predate federal involvement."
leonard peltier: awesome!
http://37.media.tumblr.com/6f85de7c452cc4399004ee555a8c11b0/tumblr_n1f6wpKsz81rx3d1wo1_250.gif
ReplyDelete~
And ask them how they felt about the Occupy movement.
ReplyDeleteI was thinking this just yesterday: the "It's a revolution!" radicals of the 60s are replaced today by the "take up arms against tyranny" wingnuts.
ReplyDeleteThat was full of win.
ReplyDeleteTechnically if the Chinese install technology here aren't those jobs "migrating back?"
ReplyDeleteThey'd have been high and dry no matter when they ventured west. Back in the 19th century, it was free land via homesteading (not to mention free help killing off the original owners of said land).
ReplyDeleteI'm surprised they could stop beating off long enough to write.
ReplyDeleteNOT going to watch THAT.
ReplyDeletePerhaps. But remember that they are legions of dolts who've been stockpiling guns-n-ammo for years specifically waiting for the showdown with Big Guv. They're convinced that their AR-15 is going to make them invincible, even against a Stryker Brigade.
ReplyDeleteDopey and Delusional, that's the true patriot way!
I dunno, man. I don't think they'd care. They'd just be extra proud of their 4WD monster trucks.
ReplyDeleteWe liberals can afford to play the waiting game. Once we force everyone to go vegan, the ranchers will starve anyway.
ReplyDeleteI'm astonished it hasn't happened *yet*.
ReplyDeletePlus the disco thing. Have you heard Daft Punk's latest?
ReplyDeleteTo which conservatives reply:
ReplyDelete"Who is this 'Bush" you're talking about? We don't know either of them!"
Context aside, I must point out that false flag attacks aren't "quaint".
ReplyDelete"The feds have stolen 352 head of cattle... recompense must be made," claimed Kevin McCullough at TownHall. "And to be candid, I wouldn't be a bit surprised to see if a few ambitious law firms don't try to convince the Bundy family of the validity of litigation."
ReplyDeleteThat would take some convincing, since the whole reason the feds showed up to collect is that Bundy keeps losing on the litigation side.
"But this rancher is once again raising awareness of vital questions of
federal vs state vs private property rights," Shaw said, and also that
thanks to the militiamen and other nuts who'd backed Bundy up, "he and
his family may actually get a fair hearing ..."
[Sniffle] Truly, wouldn't it be inspiring if he and his family could finally have their day in court? Oh, wait, they've already had lots of those.
We welcome our new ovo-lacto overlords.
ReplyDeleteThey're praying for Waco.
ReplyDeleteBundy's claim is that, because it's the federal government that's demanding payment, he can't get a fair trial in federal court. He's demanding a trial in a state court.
ReplyDeleteGotta love the law-n-order conservatives: They love the letter of the law, except when it's inconvenient for them personally or politically. Then, of course, the law is evidence of a completely lawless government.
+1 for "Welfare Waynes"
ReplyDeleteM'self, I think it's his fault that he's not a big banker or a war criminal, and therefore able to avail himself of the "too important to jail" qualification.
ReplyDeleteand Ruby Ridge happened in '92 when GHW Bush was president. You could "look it up" as they say.
ReplyDeleteIt must be a horrible dilemma for the Feds. Let the mooching creep get away with abusing Federal lands, and they'll all start doing it, along with upping the violent rhetoric and acts.
ReplyDeleteBeat 'em up and innocent people will probably end up blown to pieces.
Why does our president insist on shoving terrifying tortoise dongs down our throats??
ReplyDelete"...the crazy is significantly higher this time around"
ReplyDeleteAnd open support from the media and conservative blibber-blabberers and politicians.
I might have to steal that one.
ReplyDeleteIts more than the tortoise, the cows were/are destroying water sources, and there were way too many cows per acre to boot. Lousy ranching methods, but why not it wasn't Bundy's land.
ReplyDeleteWorthy of the Daily Show OR Colbert.
ReplyDeleteThere is a dipshit in the comments on the ABC news article linked to in the VV piece who's major complaint about the BLM is that he can't drive his ATV wherever he wants, whenever he wants.
ReplyDeleteI vacation on the Outer Banks and there is a strong sentiment among the locals that the NPS is the root of all evil. Why? Because some 20% of the national seashore is closed to 4x4s some 20% of the year, to protect turtles and endangered birds in their breeding seasons. So because they can't go rip around on the dunes (like their daddies did!!) all years long, the Park Service is despised. Rangers can't eat in many of the restaurants, or shop in many stores. There have been threats of violence. All over protecting the very thing that allows the locals to live there year round, which is the incredible tourist draw of the wild seacoast.
If they had their way, it would look like Myrtle Beach, and they would personally get rich at the expense of losing all their heritage, which they claim to love, but only when convenient.
I daresay the NSA, CIA and FBI are all monitoring the situation closely. Probably know who each & every one of the faux-cowboys are and where they live.
ReplyDeleteNow that conservatives have unlimited money to push their cause, democrats are gonna have to start telling the truth to voters. Reid's made a good start.
ReplyDeleteFlag in the Federal court has a fringe on it, so, you know...
ReplyDelete"Dopey and Delusional" with a deeply religious faith in the Power of Their Gun. Nothing rational in their thought process, its all superstition and mumbo-jumbo.
ReplyDeleteHe said VEGAN, heretic.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if he has more than one wife?
ReplyDeleteYeah... the Canadian and British "Freemen on the Land" only look mild and harmless in comparison. But make no mistake, regardless of the nation they claim not to be citizens of, Freemen are dangerous, scary people.
ReplyDeleteClimate change will dry out the desert even further, and ranching in south Nevada may be impossible, unless they decide to make the desert tortoise their livestock. Would it be easy or hard to herd?
ReplyDelete"use public grazing lands whenever he feels like it and never pay for it" And ABUSE that land running too many cattle, building little dams in the streams & messing up the springs. He wasn't taking care of the land, which was all he was asked to do back in 1992, when he decided it was HIS land and he could ruin it if he wanted to.
ReplyDeleteAnd, of course, any effort to enforce the law will just be more evidence of Obama's complete disregard for the law.
ReplyDeleteYou know you wanna click
ReplyDeleteWanna see that turtle dick.
I don't have to ask. I remember perfectly well. :P
ReplyDeleteI was actually part of the (not very numerous or successful) local chapter of Occupy, despite my stodgy nature. I thought it as protesting the fact that the government wasn't oppressive enough (especially not to the bankers). 8)
This is not new for me. In school, I was basically this guy.
Well, sure, once a white non-Democrat is in the White House (hopefully, not in a long time!) they will be firmly on the side of law 'n order.
ReplyDeleteHomesteading....when will the government get out of our right to settle the land!
ReplyDeleteRight after we get the government to take their paws off of our Medicare! And just before we get the government out of our Social Security!
ReplyDeleteEspecially the ones that lived here first...
ReplyDeleteWhich makes the hue and cry over being "forced into free speech zones" even more hilarious. These same dweebs chortled like children watching the Saturday cartoons when it was anti-war resisters or political convention protesters being penned in. That was good fun.
ReplyDeleteNot so much when the shoe is on the other foot, even if is just a rag-tag few paranoid personalities egging on a right-wing deadbeat.
Easy, unless your turtleboys fall asleep from boredom.
ReplyDeleteYou may find yourself
ReplyDeletewatching a shiba inu ride a turtle down the block
You may ask yourself
will I have to see that turtle's cock?
"And to be candid, I wouldn't be a bit surprised to see if a few
ReplyDeleteambitious law firms don't try to convince the Bundy family of the
validity of litigation." Wait, since when are patriots still accepting
the authority of so-called "courts of law"?
Not to mention the Waaahmbulance-chasing [gasp!] Trial Lawyerzz?!
So I wonder if Bundy drives on federally-funded roads ---
ReplyDeleteFrom Wikipedia:
ReplyDeleteTo answer public questions about Ruby Ridge, the Senate Subcommittee on Terrorism, Technology and Government Information held a total of 14 days of hearings between September 6 and October 19, 1995
It didn't really become a big deal until after the Waco siege. Similarly, while the phrase "new world order" was actually from a GHWB speech, the black-helicopter crowd didn't really take off until the Clinton Administration.
Truly, wouldn't it be inspiring if he and his family could finally have their day in court?
ReplyDeleteThe Courts of ZOG!
I'd be mighty damn surprised if they weren't. Unfortunately, for it to do 'em any good, Bundy would have to prevail on those grounds.
ReplyDeleteCTRL+F: "Brady Bunch"-----zip, zilch.
ReplyDeleteI feel so alone...
The first order against him was, IIRC, in 1996, and was pretty much a cease-and-desist order that he promptly ignored. And then, there was that very long eight-year stretch during the years of Little Boots when Interior Secretary Gale Norton (former lobbyist for Harold Simmons' NLI) got all weak-kneed and fainty whenever she thought about enforcing BLM law and collecting royalties. So, enforcement didn't begin again until Obama was in, and the orders have been much the same--get your cattle off federal land.
ReplyDeleteEven if the BLM had gotten a judgment against him for damages or unpaid lease money, they could only bill him and then wait for him to not pay. At that point they could go back into court and ask the court for a garnishment order against income and other government subsidies, at which point the IRS would oversee that process. Even then, the IRS might not know what subsidies he was receiving from other agencies and would probably have to query all the other agencies in order to come to some determination about garnishment instructions to those agencies.
Right now, what the loonies are calling "confiscation" of cattle was removal of them from public lands. Without the negotiations by the sheriff, they probably would have ended up in the cow hoosegow until Bundy bailed them out by paying for the costs of removal. Even now--even after three court orders--the government can't just grab the cattle. Unless there's a specific order to seize assets to compensate the government, there can be no assets taken nor involvement of the IRS, and I don't think the orders have extended to that legal point yet.
I've been referring to them as the Ranch Davidians.
ReplyDeleteMan, that's hard to believe...
ReplyDeleteWhy do rightwingers hate turtles?
ReplyDeleteThe War on Terrapin.
Picky picky picky.
ReplyDeleteGamera, the Federal Flame-Thrower Turtle
ReplyDeletehttp://s3.postimg.org/e1ax3j703/firegamera.jpg
You may say to yourself
ReplyDeleteMY GOD IT'S HUGE
I'm never going to eat a shitake mushroom again.
ReplyDeleteAmazing - they have matching outfits. My dog and my tortoise refuse to coordinate their looks when they go curb crawling.
ReplyDeleteLet's imagine the Feds back off and leave the square-jawed ranchers to do whatever they want, wherever they want. All the ranchers living in peace, plenty and freedom, right?
ReplyDeleteAnd then remember that the "range wars" were not between the Feds and the ranchers, they were rancher-on-rancher.
Frankly, that would make some quality pay-per-view.
.
Letting the shells go by
ReplyDelete(Tortoise walking down the street)
Letting the shells go by
(Check those mighty tortoise feet)
Clearly, he had a ball!
ReplyDeleteShouldn't this have been posted a little downthread?
ReplyDeleteI'm ready to join forces with turtles to help them overthrow their Japanese dog oppressors.
ReplyDeleteTrucks, ATVs, jet skis, ... All gasoline-powered penis extensions. I hate stupid men.
ReplyDeleteSame as it Gamera was
ReplyDeleteSame as it Gamera was
Not only would Reid commit these heinous acts of treason, but he
ReplyDeletewould take jobs from American workers and American companies and give
them them to the Communist Chinese,
. . .said someone typing on a Chinese-made computer
Here's a story,
ReplyDeleteOf a man named Bundy,
Who was raising up 900 head of steer.
All of them were getting free lunch,
Grazing public land,
And had been for years.
It's a story,
Of militia wingnuts,
Who stay busy with paranoias of all sort.
Thought Bundy was getting shafted
Even though he'd had
Several days in court.
Till the one day when Bundy met these morons,
And were convinced they weren't just a bunch of whiny cunts,
That this group could form an asshole collective,
That's the way they all became the Bundy Bunch.
The Bundy Bunch, the Bundy Bunch....etc.
Well, I see everyone has stopped making sense, so we've covered that...
ReplyDeletePerhaps he has 352 fewer now...
ReplyDeleteI'm sure A&E has a production team on it already.
ReplyDeleteMakes me glad I live near the People's Republic of Berkeley, they close a park road for five months every year to promote newt three-ways.
ReplyDeletehttp://science.kqed.org/quest/2010/11/01/newt-migration/
Art HAPPENS.
ReplyDeleteVery tortoise. Much chelonian.
ReplyDeleteAnd it was during that time that massive overgrazing permanently decreased the carrying capacity of the dry rangeland of the US west, so much so that the BLM and other federal agencies have to regulate how many cows to avoid making things even worse. Most of the west is in serious drought these days, so even fewer cattle can be accommodated per acre. It apparently was a BLM-required reduction of the number of cattle on his grazing leases that added a lot of fuel to the Bundy fire a few years ago.
ReplyDeleteMcCullough is not quite dumb enough to speculate that the ambitious law firms will win in court; only that the Bundy family will fall for their grift and take them on to litigate until the cows come home the family's money runs out.
ReplyDeleteSame problem here in CO, except it is goddamned snowmobiles. They have access to 95% of USFS lands, but they want that last 5%, and that last 5% is where those of us who prefer non-motorized recreation go back country skiing. We've lost access to several areas because they just blow by the "closed to motorized vehicles" signs and the USFS apparently doesn't so enforcement. Snowmobiles and skiers don't mix; their "sleds" totally fuck up the snow and the slopes, and they do stupid avalanche-triggering crap like "high marking" - the sledneck's equivalent of "hold mah beer and watch this". (look it up - seems to be the single biggest cause of snowmobile/avalanche fatalities).
ReplyDeleteLove that photo.
ReplyDeleteNo.
ReplyDeleteSimilarly similarly, the 1983 Beirut embassy bombing didn't really draw much conservative scrutiny until they started pronouncing it "Benghazi."
ReplyDeleteIt makes me sad that I'm not still that flexible.
ReplyDeleteI would gladly graze on this comment's pubic lands.
ReplyDeleteI've never done it, and I'd never suggest you do it, but I've heard tell of trails strung with piano wire at just the right height.
ReplyDeleteI'm sure you're not the only sad one...
ReplyDeleteEasy to catch up with, at least.
ReplyDeleteI'll bet the greatest Border Collie in the World couldn't get one of those guys to change direction.
ReplyDeleteStare-downs would be epic.
Being a libertarian, I think the government should sell the land to the highest bidder, and use the proceeds to lower taxes. The highest bidder will probably be someone like Ginormous AgriBusiness World-Wide of New York, Hong Kong and Shanghai.
ReplyDeleteExcept for the scenic bits, which will be bought by Hollywood liberals, who will promptly post "No Trespassing-No Motorized Vehicles-No Hunting-No Fishing-No Grazing-No Guns" signs everywhere, and stock the lands with cute wolves and grizzly bears.
Meanwhile, the good capitalists at Ginormous will cut off Bundy and friends from water rights and grazing. When they bring their militia buddies in, the corporation will bring in mercenaries from Blackwater- oops Xe- oops Academi- who will cite property rights and stand-your-ground and launch a drone strike on their asses.
Bundy and family will end up living surrounded by Mexican janitors and maids in a trailer park outside Las Vegas and blame it all on soshulism.
Why do you think he has 14 kids? Plenty of cannon fodder:
ReplyDeleteIt appears that the anti-government activists protesting the Bureau of Land Management's actions against a Nevada cattle rancher were considering using women as a human shield if a gun battle had erupted during the standoff.
The Blaze, the conservative news site affiliated with Glenn Beck, flagged the comments made Monday by Richard Mack, identified as a former Arizona sheriff who had joined more than 1,000 other protesters alongside Cliven Bundy, who has been feuding with BLM over his use of federal land to graze his cattle.
“We were actually strategizing to put all the women up at the front,” Mack said in a Fox News clip pulled by The Blaze. “If they are going to start shooting, it’s going to be women that are going to be televised all across the world getting shot by these rogue federal officers.”
BLM ended its round-up of Bundy's cattle Saturday, citing public safety concerns after the self-described militias gathered in the area to support Bundy.
so it wasn't just about the fees.
ReplyDeleteEh…matching outfits is so Sunday bowling league, doncha think?
ReplyDeleteWhy do you think he has 14 kids?
ReplyDeleteBecause he's a deranged reactionary cultist.
“We were actually strategizing to put all the women up at the front,” Mack said in a Fox News clip pulled by The Blaze. “If they are going to start shooting, it’s going to be women that are going to be televised all across the world getting shot by these rogue federal officers.”
Whoa, women put in harm's way because of the actions of misogynist religious extremists? I'm sure Ayaan Hirsi Ali will be right on it.
This is nothing new to the native peoples. The generations of cultural despair from being a dispossessed people in their native land, where even requesting an derogatory racial epithet be not used for a sports team is treated as a "controversial" infringement on (white) First Amendment rights, must be a constant strain on self-identity as an American.
ReplyDeleteWere you posting on that LGM thread? I never recognize you without your top hat and nose.
ReplyDeleteI'm from original Cherokee territory, and I was absolutely horror-struck to learn as a kid the atrocities committed in the name of "settlement" toward a peaceful civilization, and I vicariously understood the terrible helplessness and rage of being forcibly removed from what must have been some of the most beautiful deciduous forests in the world at the time.
ReplyDeleteThat fuckers like this arrogant Bundy asshole exist and are treated more than fairly by the rest of us whom they are stealing from, just really pisses me off.
The rapist is crying "rape." Boo-fucking-Hoo.
Just as long as they weren't pretend Duck Dinosaur Bounty Hunters of Alaska, and they actually got to shoot at each other.
ReplyDeleteI would definitely watch the Hulu highlights reel of the hilarious death shots.
It's funny because it's TRUE! I want to laugh and cry at the same time.
ReplyDeleteHe refuses to pay what he legitimately owes, plans on hiding behind the women he personally endangers for show, and the federal officers are the rogues?
ReplyDelete'Course, WJC was our first black president, as we alll know.
ReplyDeleteNegative, ghost rider. What's up with the fucking taser? Everything was cool--"God doesn't care about your camera but I do"--until then. Sure, the dude was being a prick and he obviously doesn't know the U.S. Constitution from the USS Constitution, but he wasn't physically aggressive and certainly didn't need to be brought down by force. Jesus Christ, all those cops in that hallway--and the entire freaking building--couldn't have just held him, handcuffed him and sent him upstairs? Sorry, but that's a major LE fail. Officer Taserman needs to be disciplined, and I say that as someone who thinks our Sovereign Citizen is a lunatic upon whom "voter suppression" would be a good thing.
ReplyDeleteYeah, and post-OKC, Tiller, and Anders Behring Brevik, these guys genuinely do have a real body count.
ReplyDeleteDid you hear that they were planning, if things went all standoff-like, to put the women out in front as a human shield?
These guys are nuts, and they want casualties. Backing off and looking for non-confrontational loopholes seems like the smartest course of action to me.
My Rush-addled step-father regularly works himself into a lather of self-righteous indignation over 15 acres of sand dune that are restricted from human use at his local beach to protect the nesting grounds of the Snowy Plowver.
ReplyDeleteThe fact that he is 86 and hasn't visited the beach in twenty years (nor wants to) and that there are 20 miles of open sand both north and south of the nesting spot does not mitigate his outrage in any manner whatsoever.
Nah, I kept filling in the comment box and then having second thoughts about the resultant semi-coherent ragery. (No, really.) And as it turns out, Anna in PDX has done a much better job debunking the AHA feminist crusader mythos.
ReplyDeleteHuman shields? Really? Definitely puts them in good company. I wonder if the womenfolk would've been volunteers: "Cliven, are you sure about this, honey. I mean . . ."
ReplyDeletebecause I'd order in an airstrike.
ReplyDeleteFirst word out of my mouth was 'Arclight'.
That is worth a million internets.
ReplyDelete~
Certainly not till after we get our All-Terrain Long-Range Desert Camo Hoverounds ...
ReplyDelete"... As always, they are the true patriots who love America, but despise its government and the people who live there."
ReplyDeleteAnd the tortoises for some reason.