The Bundys and the Armed Occupation of a National Wildlife Refuge

Note that Fish and Wildlife Service had a pretty good working relationship with 30 other ranchers near the refuge. Oregon ranchers who sparked standoff threatened to wrap official’s son in barbed wire and drown him

There have been stories but there really is not a lot of activity. Law enforcement has not taken advantage of numerous opportunities to make arrests.A couple days ago I read an article that put forth the idea that one reason that these buffoons have not been arrested in Burns is that there are a hundred or more armed badass nutjobs in town just hoping for a reason to have a shootout. These thugs are members of other militias and white supremacists who have been intimidating local area residents and seem to be here to be provocative. Another reason for restraint was that arresting Bundy might remove the only person who can keep things calm out at the refuge.There have been a number of open letters from groups who support the refuge published on the web condemning the occupation and the lack of any response by the FBI or other law enforcement and cataloging how valuable the refuge and public lands are.Two brothers started a fund that has raised more than $50,000 so far for organizations that the Bundys will hate.This was posted on facebook this evening by a guy named Les Zaitz who has been at the refuge observing what is going on:

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The scene at the Malheur refuge this afternoon was as odd as they get. A Christian family of young singers from Kansas sang hymns before a news conference started to announce a small-time NM rancher wouldn't pay the feds to graze any more. And then some fellow announced a "citizen grand jury" was investigating crimes in Harney County. He warned reporters not to breach the secrecy by asking about its proceedings or who was on it. He said to do so was a felony, he warned. I pressed him later. He sternly warned me I was about to commit a felony. So, the Constitution is revered -- but available only to a select few? This is getting stranger by the day here and I wish I could keep you up on all the madness. There's too much!

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He describes himself on facebook as Investigations editor (managing producer/watchdog) at The Oregonian..This link has a pretty good list of stories covering the whole crazy mess Demands by Oregon standoff leaders defy logic and law, authorities saySome background on the criminals involved at the refuge Faces of the Malheur occupation: Meet the militants and their visitors

At first, I read that as a "barrel of flamingos" which isn't nearly as funny.ABE: Wow, my 1000th post. Do I get a prize?Edited by Tanypteryx, : No reason given.

Community meeting cancelled due to safety concerns. The town continues to be held ransom by armed cowards, Harney County Community Meeting Canceled Citing Public SafetyThis is a good discussion of how the Bundy Bubbas are misusing the U.S. Constitution mixed with "natural law," Mormonism, and Christianity as justification for their unlawful activities. Amazingly they are supported by a few elected representatives, but they are not convincing many voters. The Natural Law of Bullies and Babies

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Ryan Bundy has run twice for state office in Utah’s District 72 in 2008 (see above) and 2012. Ryan was selling the same platform he espouses at Malheur to folks in his own county and his extreme ideas came in dead last in a very conservative district near concentrations of federal land. (If your show is not even loved on your home turf, one wonders why you would bother to take it on the road?)

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So back to Burns. The Burns standoff is critically important because while it is about a specific ideological conflict and how we deal with these conflicts in general, it is also about how we treat those unwilling to accept the answers offered up to them by our complex system. In this latter regard we really have to ask ourselves questions about the legitimacy of any protest and the related issues. Are the people involved truly disenfranchised by a flawed system? Have they been given legitimate avenues for resolution? Have they been heard? Are their arguments sound and justified? Or are they just spoiled brats not getting their way? In looking at Cliven, Ammon and Ryan Bundy we find that they all have been heard or allowed to participate in the system. They have been shut out of nothing. Cliven, for instance, was given a chance at responsible cattle grazing, has certainly burnt up court time, and even had legislation offered up to solve his "situation." He failed at the first two and the last was declared un-constitutional.

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Now this is scary Bundyland Security Chief Ryan Payne: It’s Legal To Kill A Cop Who’s Unlawfully Trying to Arrest You

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More specifically, he came to believe that slavery never really existed in the United States and that African Americans in the antebellum South didn’t view themselves as slaves. He came to believe in an effort by some Jews to control the world. He came to believe the founders of the United States intended for the states to act as sovereign countries. He came to believe taxes are a form of legal plunder. He came to believe names are spelled in all-caps on driver’s licenses because U.S. citizens are actually corporate entities. He came to believe U.S. courts are actually foreign admiralty courts. He came to believe that in most states you have the lawful authority to kill a police officer that is unlawfully trying to arrest you. He came to believe when a newborn child’s footprint is made on a birth certificate, that child is effectively entering a life of servitude to the U.S. government, which borrows money from China based on that child’s estimated lifetime earning potential.

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The big ceremony of ranchers (only one showed up from NM) renouncing their grazing contracts Oregon standoff: Ranchers, including ex-con, renounce grazing permits.One of my friends summed it up quite well.

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How long can these guys continue to insist that they are trying to help anyone other than themselves to a free lunch. To quote the old Smith Barney ads, "Most of us make money the old fashioned way, we earn it!" Your proven inability to manage your own affairs and succeed at the game of life is not sufficient reason to change the rules of a game that the rest of mastered long ago. The Constitution, the laws of the land, and the myriad of economic opportunities seem to be working okay for the vast majority of Americans. Just because you can't figure it out doesn't mean the rest of us are doing it wrong. We are really sorry that your old man filled your heads with all sorts of mumbo jumbo and left you wholly unprepared to function within the framework of normal civilized society. Guess you didn't win the genetic lottery. We are sincerely sorry about that for your sake and your children's sake. Please take them home where they belong and don't poison the well for them the way Cliven did for you.

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The state police arrest another dimwit on his way to join the Bundy Bubbas so he can "kill federal agents." This is in Hines, a suburb of Burns. It is actually funny to watch, in a sad way. The guy claims to be a Green Beret colonel who's records were sealed by Reagan. OSP Contact with subject at Hines Market - 1-25-2016 ***WARNING -Graphic Language***The story is taking on a life of its own. If claims in the story are even partially true, Oregon is becoming ground zero for a much larger revolution against the United States and has been secretly occupied by a much larger force who want to use firearms to achieve their bizarre goals. Bundys escalating showdown with feds as support dwindles and lone wolves come looking for trouble

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Other militia sources say they want to hold emergency elections to replace Harney County Sheriff David Ward, who they believe is trashing the Constitution and serving illegally because he was appointed just days before the occupation began.

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The common law grand jury is an extralegal tactic used by the sovereign citizen movement, which means adherents pick which laws to obey according to their legal musings. DeMoreta-Folch is so extreme he has been denounced as a tyrant and unlearned and unstable by other proponents of the common law grand jury.

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When DeMoreta-Folch was asked on what legal basis he was using the Magna Carta if the Constitution was the supreme law of the land, he yelled, The Magna Carta is the supreme law of the land! The Bible is the supreme law of the land! When reporters asked him the names and numbers of grand jurors, Demoreta-Folch threatened to charge the reporters with felonies in his Star Chamber.

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This is really garbled. The Harney County Committee of Safety was formed before the occupation began but seems to now disagree with the criminals. The Burns Fire Chief, who recently resigned seems to be a member of this self-appointed group.

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In a one-on-one discussion earlier, Ryan Bundy rejected having the land go to the current county government. He said control will go to the militia’s hand-picked allies, the Harney County Committee of Safety.

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The Committee of Safety selected six members in mid-December, and issued its founding proclamation after the armed occupation began. The committee, which says it is based on frontier colonial militias that safeguarded property and lives from the savages, decries how today Federal agencies are constrained and at the mercy of small but vocal groups of radical. It has drawn up plans for full capacity timber and grazing on all federal lands in Harney County, which it says will require common-sense changes to environmental laws like the Endangered Species Act. But at the event Ammon Bundy said the militia was going to open the land to everyone: ranchers, loggers, sportsmen, hikers, and birders.

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Ryan Bundy also said even if Washington gave all federal lands to the Committee of Safety, the militia would stay to help them. That’s probably because on Jan. 8, six days into the takeover, the Committee of Safety read Ammon Bundy a letter at a town meeting, asking him to hit the road with his militia because you choose to take the aggressive action of occupying the refuge and did it without our knowledge or any other local approval.

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One pair who have been regulars at the camp spoke as if the revolution has already begun, but it was hard to separate fact from fiction from fantasy from delusion. One claimed asymmetricals are joining up. By that he meant lone wolves radicalized over the Internet were flocking to the Bundy crusade. He said 300 to 400 militia members were bunked out in nearby towns and homes ready to strike, and local law enforcement and sheriff’s deputies in other counties were providing covert support. He also asserted there were plans to move on Bureau of Land Management holdings in 20 different counties.

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The pair warned it’s going to come to bloodshed, and when it does it will be officer against officer as police and soldiers joined their cause. The two were eager to discuss how our food, water, medicine, and energy are all poisoned, and when sodium fluoride in the water combines with mercury-thimerosal vaccines, it leads to brain changes. The discussion was not complete without a brief foray into 9/11 conspiracy theories and talk of other mysterious murders.

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While the Bundys appear keen to live to fight another day, the same can’t be said of gun-toting followers who’ve told the Raw Story they are willing to be martyred. The Bundys have created all the conditions for an inferno, and they can’t seem to figure out whether to douse it or keep stoking the flames.

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Thank you, Bundys! Oregon anti-occupation fundraiser pulls in $78,000ABE: $81,471.50 now!Edited by Tanypteryx, : No reason given.

Apparently 2 others shot Pete Santilli: Militants supporter says Ammon Bundy in custodyABE: Bundys in custody, one militant dead after gunfight near BurnsEdited by Tanypteryx, : No reason given.Edited by Tanypteryx, : No reason given.

Actually, the Grant County sheriff, Glen Palmer is a supporter of the Bundys as is the Baker County Sheriff Travis Ash. Ash is also a posse comitatus wingnut.

One great aspect to this whole circus is a bunch of radical gun nuts have voluntarily given up their right to own firearms for the rest of their lives....not just nuts, but stupid nuts.

This could turn out to be a win-win. The FBI gets to experiment with different tactics dealing with real domestic anti-government terrorists (or zombie apocalypse) and build a more detailed list of all these nutjobs. The next time they try to buy a legal firearm, shahzam, they fail the background check, the next time they want to fly, shahzam, no fly list. Next time they want a government handout, shahzam, sorry no money for you. etc., etc. 'Thousands' called to Burns to tell FBI to leave after occupation leader's arrest

If they are convicted felons I would think not. A silver lining. As long as they don't let them plea-bargain their way out of this. Hopefully they will be charged with more than they have been arrested on.

The gummy dicks will be consumed by the time it's all over, but Malheur occupiers: ‘All of us out or all dead’

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Sean Anderson, who is at the site with his wife, Sandy, and two others, says: We’re waiting for our miracle. If this doesn’t wake America up, I don’t know what will.

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Sean Anderson, who is from Riggins, Idaho, goes on to say that he and the other occupiers are heroes. Think about the Bible and all the heroes came from the bottom. We were just four drunks, we don’t have any military experience, and now we’re the shining stars, he said.

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This has turned into pure entertainment.

Landowners Inside FBI Perimeter: 'We’re Psychologically Exhausted'

Protest over Finicum death rolls through Burns
3% of Idaho planning a protest in Burns on MondayWhat would really be ironic is a shoot out between the gun nuts waving the American flag and those waving confederate flag. .Sadly, The dimwits are aligned with the right-wingnut politicians and the land and wildlife will suffer. Op-ed: Public Lands Initiative takes an Oregon-standoff approach to grazing

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Not surprisingly, I guess, this "grand bargain" proposes to reward the Bundys of the West with the kind of frozen livestock grazing and lack of national authority for which the Bundys thought they had to pick up guns and occupy the Malheur Wildlife Refuge. The PLI would create a new kind of "un-wilderness," tying the hands of land managers. In the grand bargain's newly designated wilderness areas, National Conservation Areas, Special Management Areas and Recreation Zones, existing livestock numbers would be mandated to remain the same, or increase. In this new "wilderness," ranchers could use ATVs to place feed and bulldozers to build new infrastructure. The Forest Service would be barred from considering the continued existence, or disappearance, of species or species habitat when making grazing decisions.

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Before the gunmen occupied Malheur Wildlife Refuge in January 2016, did they know that there had been a successful collaboration between ranchers who graze cattle on the refuge, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and environmentalists?

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As Colby Marshall, member of a ranching family that has long retained grazing permits on the refuge, reports on a recently finalized comprehensive conservation plan for the refuge, "Ultimately, at the end of the day, ranchers and environmentalists all agreed it was excellent. What it did is it provided flexibility for the public lands managers and the ranchers."

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.The one positive result from the standoff is that more than $100,000 has been raised for causes that the Bundyites and Bubbas hate. Getting Occupiers of the Historic Oregon Malheur Evicted - G.O.H.O.M.E.Friends of Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, Americans for Responsible Solutions, Burns Paiute Tribe, and Southern Poverty Law Center.

I'm still in favor of Guantanamo.