The Oregon stand-off (since January 2nd 2016) is where a dozen or so armed men took over the headquarters of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in south-eastern Oregon. They did it during a holiday weekend when no one was there. They are led by Ammon Bundy, son of Cliven Bundy.
Terrorism: Their actions fit the government’s definition of terrorism, but because they are White, it does not fit the Whitespeak definition. So the White press uses terms like these in headlines:
- protesters, colorful characters: LA TImes;
- armed protest/ers: CNN, BBC, Fox News, New York Times;
- militia/men: Huffington Post, The Daily Beast, The Guardian, Daily Mail, The Independent;
- armed militia: Chicago Tribune;
- militia occupiers: Buzzfeed, New York Daily News;
- activists: NBC News, MSNBC;
- armed men: Washington Post.
Learn the lingo:
- militia: armed White men;
- terrorists: armed Muslim men;
- thugs: armed or unarmed Black men.
The double standard, though, was not lost on Twitter where they have been called #YallQaeda.
The police call them “outside militants”.
They call themselves “patriots”, defenders of the Constitution. They call on fellow patriots from across the country to come to Oregon with their guns and stand against the US government. They are ready to stay there for years.
The Malheur National Wildlife Refuge is a wilderness reserve, one of six west of the Mississippi River, set aside in 1908 by President Theodore Roosevelt. It is open country made up of lakes, ponds, marshes, grassland and desert. Birds use it as a way station along the Pacific coast, where they have their young. It also has deer and antelope.
Malheur has grown over the years. It now takes up 7% of Harney county. Ammon Bundy says it is driving people into poverty. He says the US government overstepped the Constitution by taking land that rightly belongs to the state or county. He wants to take the land back for the people – meaning for White ranchers, loggers and miners, not for the Northern Paiute Natives who had lived there from -11,000 to 1879.
Ammon Bundy has good reason to expect success: in 2014 he took part in his father’s armed stand-off with the government over grazing rights in the neighbouring state of Nevada. The government backed off.
The Oregon stand-off started as a protest for ranchers Dwight and Steven Hammond. They own land next to the reserve. In 2012, in a case that went all the way up to the US Supreme Court, they were found guilty of setting fires on the reserve. On the 4th they went to prison. They have distanced themselves from Bundy.
So far:
- The government has not sent armoured vehicles or anyone with guns, tasers, tear gas or sound cannons.
- It has not charged anyone with a crime or made any arrests.
- It has not brought in armed soldiers.
- The president has not called them thugs.
In short, none of things they do to unarmed Black protesters.
– Abagond, 2016.
Update (January 27th): Yesterday, after 24 days, Ammon Bundy was arrested at last, along with seven others. The FBI and police stopped them on the open road going to a meeting. Shots were fired. One of Bundy’s men was killed and another (his brother) injured. Bundy still has gunmen at Malheur. Some left, but others remain. The stand-off continues.
Update (February 12th): Yesterday morning, after bending over backwards to avoid violence for over a month, the FBI and county police arrived at Malheur with armoured vehicles. By day’s end the four remaining hold-outs gave up peacefully.
Update (October 28th): Ammon Bundy and six others were found not guilty of a federal conspiracy by an all-White jury. This made the news at the same time that police in North Dakota were cracking down on unarmed Native Americans protesting the Dakota Access Pipeline! More: ICTMN.
See also:
- White American terrorists
- Whitespeak
- The biker gang shoot-out in Waco
- Black Lives Matter
- Blacks shot dead on the spot while holding a toy gun
550
“Their actions fit the government’s definition of terrorism, but because they are White, it does not fit the Whitespeak definition.”
Abagond,
I thought you knew.
It’s not just about being white.
It’s also a fashion/dress style thing!
Terrorists (the real ones of course) NEVER wear cowboy hats, baseball caps and plaid shirts!
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YallQaeda waging Yeehad
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@Abagond
Off topic (sort of) but have you seen Trump’s campaign video yet?
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I prefer “Vanilla ISIS.”
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LOL @ #YallQaeda. I am certain if black folks with guns were holed up somewhere none of them would be living. This is the double standard in America. It is so clear to see these are domestic terrorist even though mainstream media refuses to label them as such. They call BLM terrorist when all black people want is for the cops to stop the brutality and killing of unarmed black men. @ King: LOL @Vanilla ISIS
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Isn’t that a white media term for the event?
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“Malheur National Wildlife Refuge ”
Malheur, french for misfortune how apt!
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Learn the lingo militia means armed white men. Terrorist means Muslim and Thugs are unarmed black men. The non white groups are framed with the nefarious labels.
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I wholly agree with the analysis that recognizes a tendentious application of the government’s definition based primarily on ethnic origin. My main opposition to the definition, however, is that it is applied at all. “Terrorist” is nearly always bullshit.
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Militia isn’t a nefarious label?
All double-standard issues aside, I think it is terrible policy if a state allows itself to be challanged like that. I don’t know if they necessarily have to roll in the tanks or rather starve them out. But afterwards the authorities should definitly come down hard on them. Something in the 15 to life bracket.
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Militia: A military force that is raised from the civil population to supplement a regular army in a time of emergency.
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I just realized that “militia” has two German translations: “Bürgerwehr” (lit. citizen army) and “Miliz”. Bürgerwehr has the positive historical connotations you mentioned. I was only thinking of Milliz which (at least by me) is associated with groups like RUF or LRA.
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White Amerikan Thugs – Hell Yeah!
White Amerikan Terrorists – Hell Yeah!
White Amerikan Patriots – Not so much!
White Amerikan Constitutionalists – Hell no!
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Peaceful black protesters have been shot at and brutalized. White Supremacist culture is blatantly on display in this scenario.
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To me their not terrorists until they shoot somebody randomly. They are more like a red neck version of Occupy but with guns to defend what they are occupying.
A terrorist to me is somebody who randomly shoots or kills innocent people for some ideological belief. Christians that shoot up or bomb abortion clinics, radical Islam, or U.S. drones.
If they do have a shoot out it will be against government agents not soft target civilians.
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These men are not terrorists. In the system of white supremacy whites can NEVER be terrorists. That’s why the Ku Klux Klan are seen as freedom fighters by many whites. That’s White Supremacy 101.
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The government is being so cautious not to be seen as acting violently towards these people that their only real strategy so far is to wait for them to get tired and leave. someone else noticed that the underlying difference between the black and white scenarios is that the black protesters are restricting the access and use of white owned private property. These white agitators are claiming access to public property in order to make it private property……owned by them. They want cheap land to graze their cattle.
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@ Kartoffel
In the US, “militia” is a positive term. It is not only used to refer to those who opposed British rule in the American Revolution, as Kiwi pointed out, it is also used in the Second Amendment of the US Constitution:
But that was written in the days when the US did not have a standing army. Still, people see their right to bear arms as a way to keep the government from becoming overly powerful and, if necessary, to mount a second revolution.
Calling armed White men a “militia” says that their cause might be just, that they use violence out of necessity.
Calling armed Muslims “terrorists” and unarmed Black protesters ‘thugs” says that they have no true cause, that they are only bent on violence. That means there is little point in negotiating with them, that the only answer is to meet violence with a show of force if not violence itself.
People of colour are unreasoning creatures and must be dealt with firmly before they get out of control. With White people you can appeal to the law, reason, morals, their rational self-interest. They are complex creatures. That seems to be the thinking.
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Reblogged this on League of Bloggers For a Better World.
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It was 137 years ago yesterday that the Paiute Indians were marched off at gunpoint from the land Bundy has taken over. I added a graphic about that to the post.
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@ Abagond
You could also contrast this to the government’s reaction when AIM took over Wounded Knee in 1973.
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> The police have not sent armoured vehicles or anyone with guns, tasers, tear gas or sound cannons.
> The police have not charged anyone with a crime or made any arrests.
> The governor has not called out the National Guard.
> The president has not called them thugs.
That’s because white citizens have the right to take an armed stand against the federal tyranny, and it’s a right specifically proclaimed by the founding fathers and included in the Constitution… isn’t it?
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This reminds me of the Ruby Ridge stand off. Except there were deaths. But they still were a fringe group. These so called militia extremist need to be arrested. Why doesn’t the President call these wing nuts “thugs”?
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I wish those Native Americans who the land rightfully belongs to would just come in armed rifles and whatever weapons they could find and run those dogs off their land. They are the ones who were cheated.
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@ Mary
That would be brilliant!
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The Paiute never signed over that land. They were forced off it at gunpoint.
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Between ongoing wars overseas, the ever growing Amerikan fear/hatred of Muslims, racially motivated aggressions in places like Ferguson, Baltimore, Chicago (or most anywhere Black people exist) and now the armed militia “WHITE extremists” debacle in Oregon, the pressure cooker is about to erupt spewing an even greater level of violence across the nation.
Meanwhile Obama wants to legislate new gun control laws via his (mightier than congress) executive pen that would limit the mainstream’s access to guns while simultaneously permitting the world’s largest (Amerikan) arms industry to sell all manner of weapons internationally to both friends and foes alike… because today’s friend is tomorrow’s foe ..
Hold on to your seats.
There’s a whole lot more VIOLENCE coming to Amerika’s Bizarro World.
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To Abagond:
The police have not sent armoured vehicles or anyone with guns, tasers, tear gas or sound cannons. The police have not charged anyone with a crime or made any arrests.The governor has not called out the National Guard.
Yes, that’s because on Federal property none of the above have any jurisdiction. In this case President Obama could call on Federal marshals and/or the FBI to remove them.
The president has not called them thugs.
When has he used that term..?
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@abagond, Mary Burrell
I agree. Give it back to the Paiute.
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@ Lemmy
1. I think you are splitting hairs and possibly missing my point, but in any case I changed “the police” and “the governor” to “the government”.
2. Obama called the Baltimore rioters “thugs”:
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I am just glad people see what is actually happening here and no one is going to be deceived by these jokers.
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To Abagond:
I think you are splitting hairs and possibly missing my point, but in any case I changed “the police” and “the governor” to “the government”.
It wasn’t clear you were implying, it’s a Federal matter and the head of the Federal government and US attorney general (the attorney general matters, review actions by Janet Reno in the 90s) are both black and haven’t been shy about weighing on racial matters in favor of POC, so I don’t think one could make the argument that the lack of action is due to a bunch of hick police or a white governor as they simply have no authority unless ordered to accompany federal officials to remove the trespassers.
Obama called the Baltimore rioters “thugs”
Yes, I remembered that after my post, to the best of knowledge President Obama did not refer to any of the BLM activities over the holidays as acts of thuggery.or for that matter any other actions outside of Baltimore. I’m sure if this drags on President Obama will have some comments about these D-bags that won’t be polite.
That said have you looked into the charges brought against the Hammond family which started this protest (which as you noted the Hammond family disavowed the protest..)…?
Here is an article written about the charges against the Hammonds before the incident, if it is accurate something seems amiss about the prosecution:
http://www.thefencepost.com/news/18847695-113/two-members-of-oregons-hammond-family-to-serve
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As is apparent, one can be an Obamapoligist and use the skin tone of high office holders to downplay their continuous or inconsistent (mis)application of the (racist) response of state. There is a reason it’s called institutionalized racism: it’s manifest at an institutional level, irrespective of the ethnic background of the executive or judiciary.
That the president uttered the t-word says all you need to know about the face of politics and speaks volumes about where he belongs in the historical pantheon of the American variety: As far as acheivement goes, he would fit in quite well next to the latest addition to Mount Rushmore, Teddy Roosevelt, save for the fact that he is roundly despised by many, for no better reason than the color of his skin.
That AG Reno has been invoked is wholly appropriate to this topic. It was indeed on her watch that the Davidians died. The extent to which one believes innocents were murdered by the state in that conflict determines whether one refers to it as a siege or a slaughter. I prefer the latter, even if I do believe Koresh was a pretty damn dastardly creep. Minus the hostages-by-birthright, this is where the feds find themselves today.
Based exclusively on my personal opinion and by no means the letter of the law — if they were to storm the compound, or whatever it’s called, it’d be a clear case of institutionalized white supremecy on white supremecy crime. It could happen. Maybe not. I ain’t rootin’ for it, fantasies about a return of the Paiute notwithstanding. In the current case, my belief is that the feds are actually doing the right thing, which seems to be waiting them out as long as they aren’t an immediate threat. The same should be the case if they were Black. Of course, we can assume in that case they’d have been killed already. However, I don’t think historical tendency justifies armed response.
In re. the matter of the Hammonds: I agree that it’s questionable, but the state applies minimum sentencing as it sees fit — and the Hammonds got caught in it. And though it doesn’t justify it in my mind, there are manifold more African Americans caught in that same trap — as we know, not just because of Poppy Bush, but also his friend and amirer, the first first ™black president, Bubbya Jefferson.
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i am always reminded of how they handled the ‘MOVE’ issue in philly, compared to this, they could just have the county sheriffs move the perimeter back some and send a drone to oregon!
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@ Lemmy
My point is that law enforcement and the press act way differently with unarmed Black protesters than with armed White ones.
That Obama is Black does not make a damn bit of difference, unfortunately. He “knows better”, but he became part of the Borg long ago.
When Paiutes hold a barbecue in the park in Burns, the police circle the block. But when White men with guns take over Malheur – no cops in sight.
CNN yesterday asked Jarvis Kennedy, a Paiute tribal leader, what would happen if they had done what Bundy did. He said:
And if Ammon Bundy were Muslim, his body would be riddled with bullet holes like Swiss cheese by now. Just like what they did to the (Muslim) San Bernardino shooters – but NOT to the (White) Planned Parenthood shooter.
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@v8driver
Your comment is so spot on! The 1985 police and fire dept. assault on the MOVE residence was horrific. They shot into a house filled with unarmed Black men, women and children. Then they literally dropped a bomb on the house from the air. People trying to escape the flames were shot. Eleven people died that day.
The bomb caused a fire that leveled their neighbors houses on the block and the fire dept. did very little to combat the flames.
The few survivors of that outrageous attack were scooped up and charged with shooting the police. Funny though, the bullets in the wounded cops were all standard police issue ammunition. No weapons were found in the burned ruins of the home.
The survivors were sentenced to 30 plus years in prison and they are still being held to this day.
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@davidly
“There is a reason it’s called institutionalized racism: it’s manifest at an institutional level, irrespective of the ethnic background of the executive or judiciary.”
You nailed it on this point and several others. If the masses of Black people really understood how the “first ™black president, Bubbya Jefferson” (Bill Clinton) betrayed the African-American community with “anti-crime” bills, shredding the rights of former prisoners and dozens of other pieces of rightwing legislation they would spit everytime they said his name or saw him and his crooked spouse.
“Obamapoligist” indeed. Great one!
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In the aftermath of the Ruby Ridge shootout, the White male survivor was awarded three million dollars for his pain and suffering. This was in spite of the fact that he was shooting at federal agents.
Meanwhile, Leonard Peltier, Mumia Abu Jamal, Albert Woodfox and a host of other Black and Indigenous political prisoners are held for decades after shoddy trials in miserable conditions.
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*ping*
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To davidly:
the matter of the Hammonds: I agree that it’s questionable, but the state applies minimum sentencing as it sees fit — and the Hammonds got caught in it. And though it doesn’t justify it in my mind, there are manifold more African Americans caught in that same trap — as we know
Very much agree,the US, a country that imprisons more people per capita than anywhere else on the planet is either not free and/or seriously needs to examine it’s approach to punishment. But as for the extremists who have occupied the refuge, I don’t give flying rat’s behind about them.
As is apparent, one can be an Obamapoligist and use the skin tone of high office holders to downplay their continuous or inconsistent (mis)application of the (racist) response of state.
I get what you are saying, but Obama tends not rush in and make statements with perhaps a few exceptions, although you and Abagond might be right in that at best he’ll make some milquetoast statements about the occupiers.
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right they blew up the block in sw philly right by the park there idk i get lost thinking who was the police on the helicopter etc so did they just not expect to have no white ppl there it is a local issue to me as i am a philly citizen so to speak i guess it is a book in that one!
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To Abagond:
CNN yesterday asked Jarvis Kennedy, a Paiute tribal leader, what would happen if they had done what Bundy did. He said:
“Oh, we’d be already shot up, blown up, in jail, handcuffed. Just being honest. They’re used to killing us from way back and nothing’s changed, really.”
I suppose that’s possible but as you know that didn’t happen at Alcatraz which was very close to a densely populated city:
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oh look i got scooped on this one by a day a better writer too
http://www.addictinginfo.org/2016/01/05/heres-exactly-what-would-happen-to-the-bundy-militia-if-they-were-black/
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They’ve gone rogue. And now the head clown is comparing himself to Rosa Parks. Delusional at best. Bunch of terrorist, thugs.
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To Kiwi:
That is not an apt comparison. The people who occupied Alcatraz were unarmed whereas the people currently occupying Malheur are armed.
Yes, I thought someone might reply in that manner.. but I happen to know someone very familiar with the Alcatraz occupation and yes some of the Native people were armed although you are correct in that it was not advertised to the public as such and was billed accurately as a peaceful protest.
Perhaps a more correct comparison would be to the 1973 Wounded Knee occupation which spanned a much longer duration (71 days) and did end in a few deaths on both sides and sporadic shooting but no overwhelming attack or bombs used (At least according to Wikipedia).Two leaders were arrested and tried but found not guilty.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wounded_Knee_incident
Understand that I have deep sympathy with the two occupations by the Native Americans and zero sympathy for the whites occupiers in Oregon but that I am comparing the government reaction to the various incidents.
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@v8driver
Thanks for the link. While I don’t totally agree with the writer’s assessment of the MOVE group, I did find this statement interesting:
“MOVE was classified a terrorist organization. The Bundy militia has yet to receive this distinction after the same amount of incidents as MOVE had occurred.”
In this article on Reuters, http://www.reuters.com/article/us-oregon-militia-idUSKBN0UL2IW20160108, this armed group is repeatedly referred to as “occupiers” and their action as an “occupation”. To me, this is an attempt to use neutral language and also a way to connect this group with the Occupy movement which generally has a positive reputation with many people in this country.
The Occupy movement was not armed, was subject to constant police harassment and was eventually smashed with coordinated attacks by federal, state and local governments. The Occupy movement also was not trying to take anything. Their occupation was a protest tactic.
This group in Oregon, feels entitled to take land that belongs to all of us and claim to be the aggrieved.
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Apparently the Bundy group is a radicalized Mormon sect.
https://www.bostonglobe.com/opinion/2016/01/05/oregon-standoff-has-roots-mormon-fanaticism/QLgIkrNZipFjtbn4AyUZFJ/story.html
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@Michael Jon Barker
This is not too surprising. Thanks for the link.
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Mirkwood said “Mormons”.
The main stream LDS church is like any other church you would attend. They have some specific theology differences that changes definition of the trinity and that seperate them from the Christian church.
In Utah, Nevada, Idaho and Arizona their are splinter groups that aren’t recognized by the official LDS church and these communities practice polygamy. Ammon Bundy has 14 brothers and sisters. I haven’t read that he came from a poligamous family but I suspect so.
Normal white people just don’t have 14 kids.
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“Normal white people just don’t have 14 kids.”
.
You mean The Waltons weren’t normal white people??
“G’nite Pa.”
“G’nite Jim-Bob”
“G’nite Elizabeth”
“G’nite GrandMa”
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semi off topic?
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-35264935
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@ michealjohnbarker
LMAO!!! You( or someone else) please define” normal white people”!
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@ Abagond
Normal white people…is that a thing? Still LMAO!
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Great. Now LoM is going to add Mormons to his list along with Republicans and Southerners.
I grew up in an area that was heavily Catholic and there were some large families. My favorite story was from the youngest of 13. His name was Kelly and the two brothers in front of him were Pat and Terry. He said by the time his parents got to the last three kids, they were done with picking out different names for a boy or a girl.
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Abagond why isn’t my post in the Francis Welsing post being published?
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“Normal white people” Ya that’s my sense of humor lol
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@ GulliverFredrich
Comment deleted for overuse of ALL CAPS.
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I have re edited the comment without all caps abagond, could you please allow it now?
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@Michael Jon Barker: Reading your posts about the Bundy group being radicalized sect of the Mormons kind of helps me to understand the mindset of these people.
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michaeljonbarker
Thank you!!! Most people do not realize the Mormon church broke off into three sects, following the death of Joseph Smith. Typical Mormon families do not partake of tobacco, coffeee, or alcohol. These people are not typical.
Based on what I understand he may very well be part of the polygamist branch. Though I will be honest and say Mormon families plan for 4 kids or more.
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Seems the group, blogger Chauncey DeVega calls “Bundy’s Brigands” have become emboldened by law enforcement inaction. According to this CNN report, http://www.cnn.com/2016/01/12/us/oregon-armed-protesters/index.html, the group has started offensive actions against law enforcement and the local townspeople. Harney County Sheriff Dave Ward is quoted as saying: “There are continual reports of law enforcement officers and community members being followed home; of people sitting in cars outside their homes, observing their movements and those of their families; and of people following them and their families as they move around the community … these activities are clearly designed to try to intimidate”.
While Bundy’s Brigands and their supporters are valorized by the corporate media, counter protesters like Garrett VeneKlasen are described by CNN as “livid [and] befuddled”. VeneKlasen’s ‘befuddled’ message to the media was: “I came here from New Mexico to speak on behalf of sportsmen, to speak on behalf of people that love land and wildlife, to come to tell these people to get the hell off of our land,” he said. “Let’s not candy coat this thing — they are terrorists. They are domestic terrorists.”
Glen Ford, editor of Black Agenda Report slices down to the bone of this land grab in Oregon with a piece entitled, Why the Feds Punk Out When Confronting White Rightwing Insurgents. http://www.blackagendareport.com/feds_punk_out_rightwing His assessment of why the feds are coddling Bundy’s Brigands is, “When a criminal justice system born in Native American genocide and Black slave patrolling finds itself in conflict with conservative white Christian landowners, it short-circuits. “The Mass Black Incarceration State was designed to pre-empt any insurgency by Black people” – but is wholly unprepared to handle armed revolt from the white Right, from which it also draws much of its police manpower.”
It will be interesting to see if this situation ends in a slink-out by law enforcement, a freeze-out by the townspeople or a shoot-out by equally armed, White male counter protesters who want public lands unoccupied by brigands of any sort.
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Seems like they are trying to martyr themselves as well by getting law enforcement to react to them. It is indeed ironic that it is because they are white that law enforcement has not made any moves to get these buffoons out of the preserve.
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“Seems like they are trying to martyr themselves as well by getting law enforcement to react to them. It is indeed ironic that it is because they are white that law enforcement has not made any moves to get these buffoons out of the preserve.”
.
http://www.thedailysheeple.com/oregon-fire-chief-catches-fbi-agents-posing-as-militia-quits-his-job-in-protest_012016
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^ That report is being questioned however.
http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2016-01-14/fbi-agents-werent-posing-as-militia-ex-fire-chief-clarifies
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@Herneith
There may be more than martyrdom going on with this land grab.
James Scaminaci III, PhD an expert on the American religious right wrote an interesting guest post at the blog Indomitable entitled, The Corporate, Christian Right, and the Militia Land Grab—Burns, Oregon in Strategic Perspective. http://www.chaunceydevega.com/2016/01/the-corporate-christian-right-and.html
According to Scaminaci, there is a larger and more complex dynamic at work in Burns, OR. The US government owns and controls roughly 47% of land in the Western States. That land is rich in oil, gas, coal, diamonds, gold, copper and other minerals, plus timber and grazing land on its surface. There is an estimated $150 trillion in mineral value alone. Under federal control in the form of national parks, wildlife reserves, military bases (and other government facilities plus open real estate, the land and its resources are the property of the American people. That territory and its assets form an important part of the commons in the US.
Scaminaci contends that when you drill down deeply on this land grab the real objective is “about transferring hundreds of millions of acres and hundreds of trillions of dollars of [public] mineral wealth into the [private] hands of billionaires and corporations.” This action by Bundy’s Brigands is a direct attack on public ownership and the commons.
When you follow the dollars, they will lead you to some interesting places.
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When you follow the dollars, they will lead you to some interesting places.
I am not surprised.
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It seems that finally the stand off was confronted by the USA Federal government. And people died:
(http://edition.cnn.com/2016/01/26/us/oregon-wildlife-refuge-siege-arrests/index.html)
I would know how the whole episode will further strain race relations in the USA. Somebody can come with a narrative where the Negro-led government is killing “true” citizens aka White people and violating (sic) the Constitution and the rights of people. One never know…
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Really it would be interesting to know what is the position of Trump’s supporters in relation to this case and its recent developments, since many of them believe that White folks, in general, are now under siege in the USA. See:
(http://edition.cnn.com/2016/01/27/politics/donald-trump-voters-2016-election/index.html)
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Update (January 27th): Yesterday, after 24 days, Ammon Bundy was arrested at last, along with seven others. The FBI and police stopped them on the open road going to a meeting. Shots were fired. One of Bundy’s men was killed and another (his brother) injured. Bundy still has gunmen at Malheur. Some left, but others remain. The stand-off continues.
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According to cnn, ‘it’s not clear who fired first’ … that type of thing, context aside, really drives me nuts. I guess just take it as the cops shot first.
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http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-35435824
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Ya I think it was suicide by cop. “You either shoot me now or let us alone” and “Just shoot me”.
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y92PvMFL0Eg&feature=youtu.be)
The video the FBI released (at lightning speed compared to when Black people get shot) shows Mr. Finicum with his hands in the air. He then drops his arms and the video stops. It’s hard to say whether he was going for a side arm or whether he dropped his arms because he was being shot.
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Update: Yesterday morning, after bending over backwards to avoid violence for over a month, the FBI and county police arrived at Malheur with armoured vehicles. By day’s end the four remaining hold-outs gave up peacefully.
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Update: Ammon Bundy and six others were found not guilty of a federal conspiracy by an all-White jury. This made the news at the same time that police in North Dakota were cracking down on unarmed Native Americans protesting the Dakota Access Pipeline!
More:
http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2016/10/28/patriots-acquitted-malheur-dapl-water-protectors-get-maced-166254
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