Ammon Bundy, Get Off Our Land

Those weird and wild Bundys are at it again. People should remember the Nevada based clan, headed by ol' Cliven, because of a 2014 standoff with federal authorities over twenty plus years worth of unpaid grazing fees. Cliven doesn't believe in them--in fact, despite a multitude of media photos showing him waving an American flag--he claims he doesn't even believe in the United States government and refuses to recognize it.

When the Bureau of Land Management went into Nevada that year to confiscate some of Bundy's cattle for non payment all manner of bushy faced "militia men" came rushing to his aid. There was a tense standoff during which everyone from Rand Paul, to Sean Hannity and Glenn Beck claimed Brother Bundy was the greatest thing since sliced bread.

Well, at least until he started talking about black people and revealed himself as an overt and repulsive racist. At that point politicians and talking heads everywhere dropped him faster than the Soviet Union dropped Germany as an ally in WWII.

Now, his sons have moved on to another cause in southeastern Oregon.

This year's confrontation actually started back in 2001 after Dwight Hammond and his son Steve set fire to about 130 acres of land leased from the feds. They claimed they had to do it in order to protect their property from invasive vegetation and to stave off possible wildfires. A United States attorney accused them of setting the fires to cover up a poaching operation.

The Hammonds were found guilty of arson and sentenced to five years. Dwight was in the joint for only three months and Steve was jailed for a year. A federal judge recently found that unacceptable and ordered both men back to prison for another four years.

Enter one more group of militia dudes, mainly from Idaho, who held a peaceful march in the Hammond's hometown of Burns, which is located about thirty miles from the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge. At the end of it, Ammon Bundy and two of his brothers led a group of armed yokels down the road and took over the empty headquarters building of the refuge.

According to Bundy the younger, who is speaking through--what else--social media, there are dozens of armed people there and they are ready to stay for a long time if need be.

A couple of things happened right away. The feds, not wanting to create martyrs and preferring to let these vile goofs expose themselves as nothing more than a bunch of cheap jack hick thugs, haven't done anything about the situation. Secondly, everyone else involved with the Burns protest, including the militia leader in charge and the Hammonds themselves, have vociferously insisted they didn't know about the takeover in advance and had nothing to do with it.

In fact, Dwight and Steve Hammond are insisting they will peacefully surrender to authorities this week. Even Cliven Bundy says he didn't know it would happen. Indeed, when things go all criminally askew, it's best to deny everything.

Meanwhile Ammon Bundy posted a video on Facebook and the caption below it read, "All Patriots it is time to stand up not stand down!!! We need your help!!! Come prepared." He also responded to a question on Facebook by saying, "We are staying here for years, absolutely. This is not a decision we've made at the last minute."

After admitting to a conspiracy against the duly elected government of the United States, he threw in some other bullshit about returning the land to local ranchers so they could use it as they wished. What Bundy the younger doesn't seem to realize, willingly, or not, is that ranchers never owned the vast majority of the refuge. But, hey, what do you expect? The genes which determine the levels of stupidity and hypocrisy run amok in his family--as proven by his old man.

According to the Malheur web site, the refuge was established in August, 1908 by President Teddy Roosevelt. The area it occupied at the time consisted entirely of--unless you count Native Americans--unclaimed federal land. In 1935 another 65,000 acres were added by Franklin Roosevelt who then sent in members of the federally funded Civilian Conservation Corps to develop and improve the refuge. In 1942 the U.S. government bought another 14,000 acres to enlarge it to its present size.

The reason for the establishment of Malheur was to provide a wetland sanctuary in order to protect the native bird population which was being hunted to extinction by people lusting, not for food, but their plumage.

One local witness, who delivered food to the Bundy bunch, says there are about 15 people wandering around Malheur's headquarter building. Bundy, in true ISIS fashion, claims there are 150.

People like Bundy and the militias claim to be patriots, but they are in reality the first cousins of Tim McVeigh, who murdered 161 people in Oklahoma City, 19 of whom were babies and toddlers. These backyard Minutemen seem to boil at a temperature only slightly less than his. At some point, just like McVeigh, they're going to go off, not because of the constitution, but in opposition to it.

Let's face it. They don't believe in this government simply because it doesn't let them do exactly what they want to. And what they want to do is run the country.

I hate to tell you ladies and gentlemen of the lunatic fringe, but that ship has sailed. Unquestioned white rule in the United States has gone the way of the Dodo.

And by the way, as a taxpayer, the Malheur Wildlife Refuge belongs to me and hundreds of millions of others. I have helped and continue to help pay for it. So, with all the due disrespect you deserve, I say to you hypocritical assholes , "Get the fuck off our land!"

Now, given the circumstances, I declare the bar open. The first round is on me.



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