Bundys And Other Seditionists Indicted On Multiple Felony Counts

Indictments have been announced for the April 2014 armed standoff at the Cliven "Hoof" Bundy ranch in Nevada:

A federal grand jury in Nevada indicted Cliven Bundy and four others on 16 charges related to an armed standoff near his ranch in 2014 over unpaid grazing fees.

The 69-year-old Nevada rancher was arrested Feb. 10 in Portland, Oregon, where his sons, Ammon and RyanBundy, are jailed and accused of organizing the occupation of Malheur National Wildlife Refuge. In the takeover, which lasted nearly six weeks, they had demanded that public lands be turned over to locals and that two area ranchers serving sentences for arson be freed.

Ammon Bundy, of Idaho, Ryan Bundy, of Nevada, Ryan Payne, of Montana, and Peter Santilli of Ohio, were also indicted by the Nevada grand jury Wednesday.

The charges against them and Cliven Bundy include: conspiracy to commit an offense against the United States, conspiracy to impede or injure a federal officer, weapon use and possession, assault on a federal officer, threatening a federal law enforcement officer, obstruction, extortion to interfere with commerce, and interstate travel in aid of extortion.

If convicted, the jamokes could spend a very long time in prison and be subject to millions of dollars in fines.  Excuse us while we enjoy the schadenfreude.

Hotheads, Foreign and Domestic

We have two op/eds in the once great Washington Post Bezos Bugle, each addressing extremists willing to threaten and use violence to achieve their objectives.  First, Anne Applebaum on the Russian-sponsored separatists in Ukraine:

Before there is any further discussion of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17, it’s important that one point be made absolutely clear: This plane crash is a result of the Russian invasion of eastern Ukraine, an operation deliberately designed to create legal, political and military chaos. Without this chaos, a surface-to-air missile would not have been fired at a passenger plane.  [snip]  

... So far there is no sign of shock or shame in Russia. But in truth, this tragedy offers Vladimir Putin an opportunity to get out of the messy disaster he created in eastern Ukraine. He has the perfect excuse to denounce the separatist movement and to cut its supplies. If he refuses, then we know that he remains profoundly dedicated to the chaos and nihilism he created in Donetsk. We can assume he intends to perpetuate it elsewhere. And if we are not prepared to fight it, we should be braced for it to spread.

We're also waiting for signs that the Russian people, who so far have shown overwhelming support for Putin's adventurism, are sick of what's been allowed to happen in Ukraine in their name.  Since they're only getting the official Russian government version of events in Ukraine, that won't happen easily.

But, of course, we have our own variety of cosplay toughs in this country.  Fortunately, they don't have access to surface-to-air missiles (that we know of).   Rep. Steven Horsford (D-NV) represents the part of Nevada where Cliven "Hoof" Bundy and his merry gang of gun-fondling "militia" and sovereign citizens are keeping justice at bay.  He writes that the extremists were fueled by the demagoguery of right-wing media and politicians:

In the frenzy to pillory the government that ensued, almost no viewpoint seemed too extreme to voice. Emboldened by attention from such high-profile conservative media figures as Sean Hannity, armed militia members set up checkpoints, stopped traffic and occupied roads. At one point, local police had to physically place themselves between the militia and agents from the Bureau of Land Management, fearing for their lives while trying to prevent a bloodbath. [snip] 

My plea to my fellow public servants and the media is this: Please, recognize that evocations of tyranny and oppression, counterbalanced by patriotic sacrifice and love of country, are powerful motivators. I watched as a small community was transformed into a hotbed for extremism. That did not happen organically but in an environment created by nonstop attention and demagoguery from media and politicians alike.

Without drawing any further analogies between the thugs in Ukraine and our own crackpot citizenry, it's clear that a "hotbed for extremism" can be fostered just as effectively by government action as by the actions of media and politicians with a political agenda.  It's gotten way out of hand in Ukraine.  We need to see to it that, in this country, fuel isn't continually being added to the fire of our own hotheads.

Today's Tomorrow Cartoon

(click to enlarge)

(Tom Tomorrow, via Daily Kos)

Domestic Terrorists Make New Threats

Nevada's deadbeat, racist rancher Cliven "Hoof" Bundy has surrounded himself with a posse of delusional, heavily armed Timothy McVeigh wannabes who imagine that they're in some cosmic, superhero style battle against the gummint Death Star (i.e., the Bureau of Land Management).  So far, these cases of arrested development have set up "checkpoints" in the vicinity of the Bundy compound, harassing some residents of Bunkerville, NV by demanding to see "identification."  Now, it appears, the infection has spread.

On Tuesday, two of the loons made threats against a BLM worker driving on Interstate 15 in Utah, wearing hoods and holding a sign saying "You need to die."  Cliven Hoof has been observed inciting violence against the BLM  to the self-appointed "militia" radicals from the region.  The Utah Highway Patrol is investigating the incident, which will be difficult due to the hoods worn by the cowards and by the duct tape covering their license plates.

Confronting Sovereign Citizens And Right-Wing Libertarians

From the banal in Keene, New Hampshire --

The activists selected this New England-cute city of 24,000 for liberation mostly because it lies within that flinty bastion of Yankee individualism known as New Hampshire, where “Live Free or Die” is carved into the collective granite.

Back in 2003, a libertarian-leaning group called the Free State Project decided that this small state could be a liberty lover’s paradise if enough like-minded people settled here. (The movement, by the way, tends to attract white males, according to Carla Gericke, the group’s president, a white South African who has lived for many years in this country. “I’m the token African-American,” she joked.)   (Ed.:  Yuk-yuk.)  (our emphasis)

And just who are these freedumb fighters "activists" saving us from?

They are part of a broader effort by about two-dozen activists, most of them from someplace else, to unshackle Keene from the “violent monopoly” of government and its enforcers, including these parking officers who work in weather fair and foul. (our emphasis)

Gotta watch out for those violent meter maids!  How nuts do you have to be to see this as "liberty loving?"

To the  fatal in Tanana, Alaska --

A sovereign citizen shot and killed two Alaska state troopers last week during an argument over a $150 couch, authorities said. 

Nathanial Kangas is accused of killing Trooper Sgt. Patrick “Scott” Johnson and Trooper Gabriel Rich as they attempted to arrest the suspect’s father. 

A mother and daughter called Tanana village police Wednesday night because they feared 58-yer-old Arvin Kangas would break into their home and steal a sofa he had sold them.

The elder Kangas told a village public safety officer that he had no jurisdiction to arrest him, and the officer called state police for backup after he said the older man made threats against him with a shotgun.  (our emphasis)

The common thread here is that civil authority and domestic peace is increasingly being threatened, sometimes with deadly consequences, by groups of far-right extremists calling themselves "sovereign citizens" or "libertarians."  As we saw with the Cliven "Hoof" Bundy carnival, it doesn't take much for these freedumb fighters shitwits to grab their guns and claim that they're not answerable to the law.

This has been brewing for some time, but the advent of America's first African-American president led to an explosion in the growth of the sovereign citizen/ nullifier/ secessionist/ militia movement.  At some point, just as George Washington had to put down the Whiskey Rebellion, governments at all levels will have to confront these "domestic terrorists" (h/t Harry Reid).  Sooner is probably better than later.

Today's Cartoon - Stuck On You

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(Stuart Carlson, via gocomics.com)

Today's Read - "High Plains Moochers"

Please read Paul Krugman's op/ed today because it goes deeper into the American right's perversion of the idea of "freedom," as exemplified by the High Plains Moocher Cliven "Hoof" Bundy episode.  Here's Krugman's seminal observation (to whet your appetite to read more):

 "... the Bundy fiasco was a byproduct of the dumbing down that seems ever more central to the way America’s right operates."

Hiding In Plain Sight

The post-mortems on the "Cliven Bundy, Right-Wing American Hero" saga continue (see here and here, for examples from two generally blind squirrels).

Here's what was there in plain sight in aptly-named Bunkerville, Nevada, for all those who chose to see, courtesy of Esquire's Caty Enders (h/t Mock Paper Scissors):

Soon enough, a handful of junior politicians and the Bundy family are ushered on stage with a full compliment of assault-weaponed militia and a man with binoculars. 

The crowd, fresh off their victory at the Battle of Bunkerville, gives Bundy a standing ovation. But he doesn’t seem pleased. He reproaches the crowd for failing to follow the word of God – to the letter – which he says is being delivered through him. They failed, for example, to follow his instructions to tear down the toll booths at Lake Mead and disarm the Park Service. 

"The message I gave to you all was a revelation that I received. And yet not one of you can seem to even quote it.”  (our emphasis)

Prophet Bundy sez God wants you to take down toll booths and disarm Park rangers.  Yeah, he sounds rational.

"The Ballad of Cliven Bundy"

Stephen Colbert sings "The Ballad of Cliven Bundy," the right-wing's latest "folk hero" and "lucky dead sea bird" cretin Sean "Heil" Hannity hung around his own neck:

The Colbert Report
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Stewart Responds To Hannity Insanity

The first round fired by Jon Stewart is here.  Here's Stewart's latest EPIC response to sedition supporter Sean "Heil" Hannity on his show last night (Parts I and II):

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Today's Tomorrow Cartoon - Sagebrush Seditionists

(click to enlarge)

(Tom Tomorrow, via Daily Kos)

Worth reading:  the University of Michigan's (Go Blue) Juan Cole on calling these far-right cretins and their "militia" gun fondlers what they are:  domestic terrorists.