Cliven Bundy says he’s ‘taking control’ with new letter vowing Oregon militants will stand their ground
Cliven Bundy says he’s ‘taking control’ with new letter vowing Oregon militants will stand their ground
The Guardian
01 Feb 2016 at 19:51 ET
By Sam Levin, The Guardian
After Ammon Bundy called on final occupiers to leave refuge, his father sent a letter to government officials declaring armed militia would not back down
Cliven Bundy, the Nevada rancher who led a standoff with the federal government in 2014, wants the protesters in Oregon to stand their ground — directly defying the message of his son, Ammon.
Days after militia leader Ammon Bundy, now in jail in Portland, Oregon, called on the final four occupiers at the Malheur national wildlife refuge to surrender and go home, the elder Bundy sent a letter to government officials declaring that the armed militia would not be backing down.
“This is notice that We the People of Harney County and also We the People of the citizens of the United States DO GIVE NOTICE THAT WE WILL RETAIN POSSESSION OF THE HARNEY COUNTY RESOURCE CENTER,” Cliven wrote in the letter, which he sent on Monday to the local sheriff, Oregon governor Kate Brown and the White House.
The armed militia in Oregon renamed the federally protected refuge the “Harney County Resource Center” and for weeks since the occupation began said their goal was to return the public lands to the control of local people.
But since 11 people associated with the militia were arrested — and occupation spokesperson LaVoy Finicum was shot and killed by state troopers — leader Ammon Bundy has called on the holdouts to end the protest.
Cliven Bundy, however, declared today that he wants the opposite to occur.
I was going to say "like father, like son" but Ammon buddy seems to be the more sensible one of the two.
Bundyville: The Remnant
Chapter Two: The Hunter and the Bomb
In the three years since the Bundys mobilized a force to take over the Malheur National Wildlife refuge in Oregon, the world has morphed in ways I couldn’t have imagined. For one thing, Donald Trump became the president of the United States. He has increased his attacks on media, stepping up from calling the very newspapers I write for “fake news,” to neglecting to hold the Saudi Arabian government accountable for putting into motion the murder of the journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
In June 2019, Trump — in a meeting at the G20 Summit — laughed with Russian president Vladimir Putin about journalists. “Get rid of them,” he said. “Fake news is a great term, isn’t it? You don’t have this problem in Russia. We have that problem.” And Putin responded: “Yes, yes. We have it, too. It’s the same.” They both laughed.
Oft-cited research collected by the Southern Poverty Law Center has shown that since 1996, anti-government activity surged when Democratic presidents were in office. Militia groups that claimed to see proof of tyranny thrived in the 1990s — specifically when Vicki Weaver and her teenage son were killed during a standoff with federal agents at Ruby Ridge in 1992, and when the feds stormed into the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas, in 1993.
In President Obama, the anti-government movement saw the embodiment of tyranny: someone upon whom they could project their worst fears. They called him a socialist globalist Muslim who, after ascending to the highest seat of power, would bring Sharia law upon the people. There was no proof or evidence to support this. But that didn’t matter to them.
Under Trump, suddenly, anti-government groups are pro-government. Nearly everything about Trump’s rhetoric — from questioning Obama’s nationality, to draining the swamp of elites, to building a border wall, to pushing for anti-Muslim legislation, to zealous nationalism — is lifted from the anti-government handbook.
“It blows my mind. The Patriot militia movement, anti-government movement — however you want to refer to them — under Obama was so concerned about tyranny and executive power … and yet they’ve been some of the most vocal advocates for Trump unilaterally grabbing and exerting executive branch power,” said Sam Jackson, an assistant professor in the College of Emergency Preparedness, Homeland Security, and Cybersecurity at the University at Albany-SUNY. Jackson researches the militia movement — he wrote his dissertation on the Oath Keepers.
“If Obama had talked about declaring a national emergency … they would have been up in arms in a heartbeat,” he said.
So what gives? How do the anti-government go pro-government?
“It makes it really hard to take them at their word,” Jackson told me. “It really makes it seem like all of that was just rhetoric that they deployed in pursuit of other goals that perhaps they perceived would be less popular amongst the American public — whether that’s Islamophobia or anti-immigration or whatever else they’re really interested in. It seems like perhaps now they’re willing to talk about these other things more blatantly than they were in the past.”
Cliven Bundy says he’s ‘taking control’ with new letter vowing Oregon militants will stand their ground
Cliven Bundy says he’s ‘taking control’ with new letter vowing Oregon militants will stand their ground
The Guardian
01 Feb 2016 at 19:51 ET
By Sam Levin, The Guardian
After Ammon Bundy called on final occupiers to leave refuge, his father sent a letter to government officials declaring armed militia would not back down
Cliven Bundy, the Nevada rancher who led a standoff with the federal government in 2014, wants the protesters in Oregon to stand their ground — directly defying the message of his son, Ammon.
Days after militia leader Ammon Bundy, now in jail in Portland, Oregon, called on the final four occupiers at the Malheur national wildlife refuge to surrender and go home, the elder Bundy sent a letter to government officials declaring that the armed militia would not be backing down.
“This is notice that We the People of Harney County and also We the People of the citizens of the United States DO GIVE NOTICE THAT WE WILL RETAIN POSSESSION OF THE HARNEY COUNTY RESOURCE CENTER,” Cliven wrote in the letter, which he sent on Monday to the local sheriff, Oregon governor Kate Brown and the White House.
The armed militia in Oregon renamed the federally protected refuge the “Harney County Resource Center” and for weeks since the occupation began said their goal was to return the public lands to the control of local people.
But since 11 people associated with the militia were arrested — and occupation spokesperson LaVoy Finicum was shot and killed by state troopers — leader Ammon Bundy has called on the holdouts to end the protest.
Cliven Bundy, however, declared today that he wants the opposite to occur.
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