#OccupyWallStreet took over public spaces in major cities and remained in them for months, committing crimes of vandalism and rape, as the media stood by and cheered and prominent Democrats rallied to their cause.
#BlackLivesMatter blocked freeways, burned down and looted neighborhood businesses, assaulted police, and threatened more violence. Once again, the media said that their grievances were legitimate, the violence was understandable if not necessarily justified, and Democrat politicians said we needed a “national dialog” to address their concerns.
But when a handful of ranchers and “militia” non-violently take over an unoccupied building in a remote western wilderness, all of the sudden, bloodthirsty leftists call it a “Terrorist Attack” and demand for them to be killed … because of the importance of the “Rule of Law.” (Which is apparently not so important when it comes to #BlackLivesMatter protests or Sanctuary Cities, but that’s a topic for another time.)
FWIW, I am pretty sure the “armed hillbilly militia” in Oregon isn’t going to be burning down any local businesses, defecating on police cars, or necessitating any “rape tents” at the locale of their protest.
There are murky legal issues underlying the events behind this particular incident. Whether or not the Federal prosecutors were justified in seeking “Terrorism” charges against the ranchers is a question people of good faith can differ on. It’s not necessary to agree with their tactics, but one has to acknowledge that given that the Coastal Media and Political Elites have zero interests in the issue of land rights in the West, it’s difficult to see what, if any, alternatives they had in raising awareness.
By and large, the elite left does not see a problem with the Federal Government outright owning 62% of Alaska, 62% of Idaho, 81% of Nevada, 67% of Utah, 53% of Oregon, 42% of Arizona. To coastal progressive elites, it seems right and natural that political appointees and bureaucrats with Public Policy degrees should manage these lands from offices in Washington. It’s axiomatic that those “hillbillies” in “flyover country” cannot be trusted to manage their own lands themselves. Not without a degree from Georgetown and a graduate thesis on “Transgender Issues in Forestry Management” they aren’t.
With the media not finding the Western Land issue “Sexy” enough to cover in the absence of “armed hillbillies,” and politicians oblivious to it, it’s difficult to see what other recourse the aggrieved ranchers and other inhabitants of the west have.
What’s happening in Oregon is yet another microfracture on the skin of society. Government is ineffectual at best and malignant at worst, and there is little hope for meaningful reform. It seems inevitable that these little cracks are going to grow in both size and severity, and if Government does as the progressives suggest and crack down even harder on the dissidents, it will likely accelerate the effect.
Yes I’ve been having great fun watching my liberal friends and their friends tying themselves in knots with double standards.
Best so far.
Lib: “The difference is no one was violent at Occupy!”
Me: Posts a list of occupy crimes “True, thank you for pointing out that no one has been violent in #occupyOregon. That is a difference.”
Lib: *bakcpeddalling* “You know that threats are a form of violence.”
Me: “Now first you say that #occupy movements aren’t violent, now you’re saying their threats were violence. Can you make up your mind?”
This is a complicated case.
I think the militia people are using means I am not a fan of, however I think there is good reason to expose the silliness of mandatory minimums and the charging of the Hammond’s with terrorism for their burns (when convicted in court the trial judge refused to give the mandatory minimum, gave each man a short jail sentence but the government appealed and won and now they have to go back to serve 5 years). The men aren’t supportive or involved with the militia take over.
So IMO the Hammonds are being treated unfairly by our government and Obama should commute their sentences but won’t now because the scary gun militia has taken over property. President Narcissist would lose face if he did that.
I think the media and the left are crazy in insisting this is horrible but happily defend chaining yourself to concrete filled barrels in major roads during rush hour. Who really causes more harm?
Sounds like a good case to urge Congress to repeal the Federal prosecutors’ privilege of appealing sentences that they don’t like. No one else in the U.S. has such a privilege, so far as I recall.
From what I’ve heard, the Feds charge that the fire was set to cover up a poaching operation- but they have yet to produce any evidence of said poaching operation. Sounds like the Hammonds stepped in to clear some brush, the Feds got annoyed that somebody did their job for them, even if they had no intention of doing it themselves, and decided that it was time for the crime roulette wheel to fall on the Hammonds.
From the shrillness of the Mainstream (Liberal) Media, when the story broke they made it sound like armed insurrectionists had stormed the Federal Building in Downtown Portland. …Not some half-abandoned rural cabin-office at a wildlife sanctuary deep in the woods.
Personally, I think the “protesters” are way over-the-top, wrong in the tactics, and bat-shit crazy. And their actions don’t make regaining control of the Executive Branch by the GOP any easier. The whole “Militia Movement” phenomenon has been a rogue-element since the Montana Bunker-crazies in the 1980s and the rural neo-Nazies before them. And they are the mirror-opposite image of the Occupy Movement; 10% is an interesting principled position, and 90% is just out of control, self-indulgent, pouting NUTZ!.
So your world view is so hyper partisan that you can’t see a distinction between occupying a place with butts vs occupying a place with guns?
Wowzers.
AND
In your world its its OK for Tea Party-types to want “free stuff” if they use guns to demand it.
Got it.
The unseriousness of your world view is staggering.
As is usual, Mikey misses the point.
I guess, using Mike’s logic, he supports terrorist activities like blowing up bridges as long as liberals do it.
I’m glad he’s so open in his support of terrorists, rapists, and thieves.
@Ted B.
I’m not sure that I can call their tactics “crazy” or “over the top” at this point, really. No one has heard their issues on land rights, no one has made an attempt to correct it, and in fact it’s gotten worse, so it’s continued without resolution for the longest time.
At this point, I think that this is the natural conclusion of what happens when an issue isn’t given any public space and is in fact suppressed. You get people who strike out (without any kind of body count in this situation, might I add), in order to make their grievances known.
Frankly, as to the point of getting the GOP the executive branch back… the chances were excessively slim before this happened. Confidence in the GOP is next to nil after they’ve basically stabbed their constituents in the back numerous times, failed to show any spine, and in fact have become bed-buddies with the Democrats for the sake of avoiding abuse by the media, as if they were some oft-beaten spouse who simply wants to stay out of the way of the raging lunatic they live with.
Now, if they’d gone on some kind of murder-spree, THEN it would be both crazy and domestic terrorism… but that’s just not what’s happening here.
FTFY
I really don’t think the protesters care about partisan politics. This isn’t an Astroturf put-up job like Occupy Wall Street.
Nope.
Because, as we know, hyperpartisan Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama screamed that political dissent equaled terrorism and merely SAYING certain words was exactly the same as violence.
That’s what makes you look stupid, mikey. We know full well that you’re a hyperpartisan imbecile who supports murdering your political opponents. We also know you support Black Lives Matter, which called for police officers to be murdered, as well as the rioters in Baltimore and Ferguson who used guns, knives, and explosives against police and innocent civilians. We also know that you scream and piss yourself over “Islamophobia” and thus allowed Islamic terrorists to murder and attempt to murder with impunity people in Garland, Texas and San Bernardino, California.
You get it, mikey? We know you’re a liar. We know you will never impose the same rules on your fellow partisans. You have made it clear that violence, rioting, destruction and harming people is the only thing that you liberals respect or to which you will respond.
So that’s exactly what these ranchers are doing. They are using the language of violence because that is the only thing liberals understand. You have no one to blame but yourself for that fact, mikey, and if any blood is shed, it will be yours and Obama’s fault for not listening to their grievances.
You can add Neil Cavuto to the list of those bleating about “the rule of law.”
I don’t think these folks are stupid enough to fire the first shot. And I don’t think the Feds are stupid enough to do it, either.
Suddenly, Leftists Are All About the “Rule of Law”
Not for a moment. Just as they’ve always been, they’re all about the Law of Rules … so long as they’re the ones who get to make the rules.
@mike – the Oregon “militia” are nutters, IMHO, but not threatening.
So far, they’ve injured no one and have not looted and/or burned a single business. They’re trespassing on public property – just like “black lives matters” and “occupy wall street” and any number of other lefty groups have done over the last couple of years.
Of course that doesn’t make the Oregon crowd right but I’d take you lefties more seriously if you were a little but consistent.
mikey talks like a muslim.
Now that’s insulting Lobogris.
To Muslims.
distinction between occupying a place with butts vs occupying a place with guns?
Great point those white protesters are probably picking up cigarette buts making the area nicer while around a dozen cops got killed over the Black Lies Matter protests for a heroin dealer and liquor store robber.
In your world its its OK for Tea Party-types to want “free stuff” if they use guns to demand it.
When the free stuff you want is your grandfathers property, and the improvements he made to the area, its different than the free stuff leftists want. The history of the area since the 1800s white settlers creating an irrigation system that attracted birds who then adapted to white farmers methods before FDR declared the area an indian reserve with no Indians on it(because he couldn’t declare a bird reserve yet) is covered over at the Conservative treehouse.