Discussion: BLM Staffer Confronted By Armed Men On Utah Highway

They were armed in Bunkerville.

Authorities are paralyzed into inaction, fearing they will have another Waco or Ruby Ridge. But what will they say when one of these psychopaths finally goes off the rails (which is bound to happen)? “We couldn’t do anything because we were all afraid we’d have another Waco.”? That’s not going to play too well at all.

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This really isn’t all that new or unusual. After graduate school, in 1978 and into the Reagan [Government is the problem] era, I was employed by the BLM for about 7 years as an environmental specialist before I transferred to the National Park Service. I worked out of the California Desert District and after that for three years in Death Valley National Monument [now a National Park] with the National Park Service, before I was stationed at the Grand Canyon.

The secluded areas of the Mojave Desert attracts a lot of odd and crazy people. Not all, but more than a few of these desert denizens have a violent hatred of all things governmental. They were antisocial or downright paranoid and of questionable mental faculties. A lot of these “eccentrics” hung out on bogus mining claims allowed by the antiquated language of the outdated 1872 mining law. While I was at Death Valley, a geology student, mistaken for a “claim-jumper” was shot and killed by one of these bozos. But that’s another story.

Every year there were a couple of “incidents” involving co-workers being shot at out in the Mojave desert. One of my friends was out in the field when a shot rang out and a bullet whistled past his head. One time, I and a coworker were both accosted by a very odd and possibly dangerous individual in a remote desert valley while assessing the depredations of feral burros on native vegetation. He started wildly gesticulating and began screaming at us incoherently We were relatively certain that the man had a gun within reach somewhere. We just slowly got back in our vehicle and left. I can still see him in my mind’s eye, arms a-wavin’, eyes-a-poppin’, neck veins a-bulgin’.

When we got issued the magnetic BLM door insignias to replace the fixed decals, we regularly removed them when going out into remote areas.

One fellow who used to drive a BLM fire truck ran out of gas in central Nevada and was refused towing service because he was a BLM employee. He had to radio for help from his area office. He didn’t consider this to be unusual treatment. At least he didn’t get shot.

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puu: Guarantee the FBI has informers in the group(s). That’s how they roll – with informers. It works.

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It would be nice if this could all be resolved without violence.

The not-government side doesn’t seem to be willing to do that.

Would you prefer to wait until after they’ve committed an atrocity to go in and arrest them for the crimes they’ve already committed?

How can this continue to go on? Every day the welfare “rancher” and his gun fondling pals are coddled it emboldens them. Bundy needs to get his shit off our land and the lunatics gathered out there need to get the fuck out, or face harsh consequences. They keep bellowing about “Waco” - fine, give them one.

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I really feel compelled to say that this comment system is less than efficient, intractable even.

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When one of these right-wing gun-fondling freaks shoots a BLM staffer or an IRS agent, I wonder if Fox and the GOP will have any second thoughts about their government-demonizing, gun-loving ways? Oh wait, they shot a Democratic congresswoman in the head and it was business as usual in the fever swamps of the right. Never mind. Silly question. My bad.

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New comment system is awful. Go back to the old format.

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Reid should change his language to our government rather than the government, it makes a difference.

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I can understand the government’s reluctance to confront the insurrectionists at the moment. I am sure they are biding their time until they get tired of playing soldier and go home.

But, that might not happen. The yahoos think they are winning. And they are getting bolder. People are going to die.

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Yes indeed, they do think they’re winning. Winning the hearts and minds of others of their ilk . And then there is poor little Sean…

To See Faux & Friends click here

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Why would it matter that the vehicles were in motion? Pointing a gun at someone – particularly while holding up a sign saying “You need to die” – is pretty clearly assault, regardless.

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According to Reid, the two men put duct tape over their license plate so that the truck could not be identified, a strategy used by Bundy supporters in Nevada.

That’s illegal. How are people driving around doing this without getting pulled over by cops?

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The right wing couldn’t be any more like the Taliban.

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Apparently, if you wear a cowboy hat you are hero to Fox News. A hoodie? Not so much.

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Well, they were out in the middle of nowhere, likely…

That might have gotten him shot had they seen it.

…if these had been black panthers interfering with one of Bush’s goons in 2003, imagine the uproar.

Hypocrisy, thy name is FOX.

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That horse has already left the barn.