Discussion for article #244282
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Do something and they’re martyrs. Do nothing and they’re winners outright. Sounds like they’ve got a good thing going.
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Unfortunately, this article doesn’t answer the basic question it poses in the headline.
But the case of the 2014 Bundy ranch standoff, the Bureau of Land Management’s initial decision to de-escalate the conflict hasn’t produced much follow up.
Even worse, this article doesn’t even pretend to try to answer that question. In fact, it would have been better just to write, we don’t know why the authorities never arrested C. Bundy a year later, or took him back to court, or added more fines, or pretended aiming loaded firearms at Federal authorities would result in zero consequences. That would have been more accurate.
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I see 2 opportunities for federal law enforcement here -
- Leak word that BLM is going after Cliven this weekend to lure the insurrectionists out of Oregon and back to the ranch
- Go get Cliven Bundy while all the insurrectionists are camping out in Oregon
If they play it right, it could be a twofer.
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If Muslims with gun occupied a federal building or a Black Lives Matter group we would have seen violence already. But now it’s white folk with money and guns. And we leave them alone. Republican candidates for POTUS aren’t saying anything…presumably because they support the white supremacists, aka patriots, aka militia.
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OK… I still don’t know what the holdup is… why did they give back his cattle… why does he still have his ranch… why isn’t he in jail?
fomenting armed insurrection is still illegal… no cows=no cash… no ranch means if this idiot wants to pay cartoon cowboy then let’s see him live off a land decimated by cattle grazing…
yipppeee kai yayyy!!!
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“Having learned the lessons of Waco and Ruby Ridge, a 1996 standoff with a Christian sect in Jordan, Montana, known as the Montana Freemen ended peacefully after weeks of negotiations.”
I doubt that it was the standoff that learned the lessons. Sorry but this one actually had me blinking trying to decipher it for a moment, a good example of why misplaced modifiers can make a sentence hard to read.
I can’t help noticing that all of the descriptions here of authorities deciding to deescalate conflicts doesn’t apply if the conflicts are between authorities and unarmed Occupy Wall Street protesters or unarmed minorities. In those cases they tended to go somewhat the other direction.
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According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, there has been a 37 percent rise in militia groups since the Bundy showdown in 2014, with the center identifying 276 militia groups – up from 202 in 2014-- in its annual count released Monday.
Whoa!
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I think it did.
Since the disastrous sieges in Waco and Ruby Ridge in the early 1990s,
federal authorities have been careful in dealing with armed
anti-government extremists, seeking to de-escalate conflicts and find
peaceful resolutions rather than initiate further confrontations.
Granted, it’s not a very satisfying answer, but I understand the rationale. The feds don’t want to create more right wing terrorists if they can help it, and it sounds like they’re basing some strategy on the Montana Freemen incident. Hopefully, they’ll realize sooner rather than later that they can’t always count on peaceful resolutions and that doing nothing only emboldens the terrrorists.
On the other hand, look at the negative reaction to the actions of these idiots by people who otherwise appear to sympathize with their cause. Maybe the feds are handing the insurrectionists enough rope to hang themselves.
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Hopefully it ends peacefully and then they’re subjected to the increased mental health evaluations the gun lobby says we need after every incident.
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I still don’t understand what they want,are they simply inarticulate or afraid to say because it will sound stupid,free grazing rights,to kill endangered species, to have the land not managed…
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You are correct. Unless you give them free grazing rights, the ability to kill endangered species and to set fire to the land you are violating their constitutional rights.
And litter, it is a gawd given right to litter.
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Wait 'em out. They are few in numbers and not real smart (their "planning " apparently did not include food) and are not being confronted by any arm of brutal government
Won’t be long before they are fighting internally over strategy
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If they get free grazing rights I don’t want to pay any camping fees at federal or state parks. If they try to charge me I will turn my dog loose to deficate on park grounds. Hey you know what, that should be my right too. And free food at the park. I want sandwiches and coffee delivered for free. Its that or you have to pick up dog poop.
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the feds should have cut the water/power supplies immediately after seizure; and cut the cell phone access – if it’s even available there. and while that is ongoing, seize the cattle and vehicles of the bundys… local cops have no issue seizing property and cash of people they stop on the interstate for friggin traffic violations.
this is bullshit; and obama’s declaration that this is a state issue only reinforces the cowardice of the feds to do anything. christ, the republicons are speaking against this seizure, noting the resolution lies within the courts and the law.
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Too bad Obama isn’t going to act like one of the Founding Fathers. When something like this happened on George Washington’s watch, he rode out with the US militia and told people not to get in his way. By the time he got out there, all the tough guys had miraculously disappeared.
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“The federal government has time – time to think about it, time to
plan, time to take measures, time to talk to these guys, time to wait
out these guys so they get tired and start bickering with each other,”
Pitcavage said, And not create what some some people in the
anti-government movement really want – which is martyrs.”
And that’s really the gist of it–what do these assclowns and ISIS/Al Qaeda have in common? They all crave martyrdom. It takes a lot of discipline for the authorities not to give them that which they so desire, but this is the essence of what makes these fools a weak tea brand of terrorist, and they need to be dealt with accordingly by law enforcement.
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Because he’s white.
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Actually, I think they are embarrassing themselves. I think if you let them sit and wait, they’ll eventually have to give in and they’ll continue to look like fools. Even quite a few of the militias think these guys are loons.
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SRfromGR is clearly right on this. The Feds have many angles to play; they have played none. Why? We don’t know and the article doesn’t even ask.
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