Western Meadowlark (Sturnella neglecta) with prey, along Ruh-Red Road near Burns, Oregon and Malheur National Wildlife Refuge: photo by Dan Dzurisin, 18 September 2012
Spooked American Coots (Fulica americana). Often mistaken for a duck, the American Coot is a common waterbird: its black body and white chicken-like wings distinguish this swimming rail from real ducks. This group of coots was spooked by traffic along Highway 2015 between Burns, Oregon and Malheur National Wildlife Refuge: photo by Dan Dzurisin, 15 April 2007, posted 6 August 2007
Wetlands at Malheur National Wildlife Refuge: photo by Mathew Foster, 21 October 2009
Buena
Vista Overlook. A view of the Steens Mountains from the Buena Vista
Overlook, located in the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge: photo by Jeff Sorn / Oregon Department of Transportation, 30 July 2010
E of Burns Junction: Wyoming big sagebrush steppe (mowed or chained). The sagebrush steppe in this region of southeast Oregon is sporadically prone to colonization to high levels of cover by Bromus tectorum. This recently mowed sagebrush steppe was associated with high cover of crested wheatgrass: photo by Matt Lavin, 29 August 2013
E of Burns Junction: Wyoming big sagebrush steppe (mowed or chained). The sagebrush steppe in this region of southeast Oregon is sporadically prone to colonization to high levels of cover by Bromus tectorum. This recently mowed sagebrush steppe was associated with high cover of crested wheatgrass: photo by Matt Lavin, 29 August 2013
Twilight over the High Desert, Malheur NWR: image via Conrad Wilson Verified account @conradjwilson, 18 January 2016
White-faced Ibis (Plegadis chihi), Malheur National
Wildlife Refuge, Oregon.
The White-faced Ibis, a dark wading bird with a long, down-curved bill,
breeds across the western United States northward to Montana, eastward
to western Louisiana, and southward to South America. Ibis and other shore birds are numerous during spring migrations at Malheur National
Wildlife Refuge in southeast Oregon.: photo by Dan Dzurisin, 15 April 2007
Save the Public Lands from Invasive Species (Peckerwoodus americana subsp. pinheadii)
Center for Biological Diversity says if mining is allowed, land would be fenced off and would not be public #koin6news: image via Jennifer Dowling @JenDowlingKoin6, 19 January 2016
Bundy says his group wants a sawmill built to process lumber harvested from the refuge land #koin6news #Malheur: image via Jennifer Dowling @JenDowlingKoin6, 19 January 2016
Bundy said his militant group is ready to defend ranchers, miners & loggers who want to use the refuge #koin6news #Malheur: image via Jennifer
Dowling @JenDowlingKoin6, 19 January 2016
Bad weather has not stopped 00s showing up for the Audubon soc's #Oregonstandoff counter-protest in PDX: image via Jason Wilson @jason_a_w, 19 January 2016
Well then. #Oregonstandoff counter-protest in PDX: image via Jason Wilson @jason_a_w, 19 January 2016
"We can't be shouted down by people with guns, we have to stand up for public lands" #RefugeRally #Oregonstandoff: image via Lauren Dake @Lauren Dake, 19 January 2016
#RefugeRally chant went from "birds not bullies" to "throw the bums in jail" #Oregonstandoff: image via Lauren Dake @Lauren Dake, 19 January 2016
I would rather ask for supplies than go out and loot for them like some other protesters have done in this country recently. #Oregonstandoff: tweet by Ammon Bundy @Ammon_Bundy, 19 January 2016
Environmentalists protesting the militia in #Oregonstandoff continue to grow in numbers @KOINNews: image via Andrew Dymburt @DymburtNews, 19 January 2016 BURNS, OR
Hundreds gather in Portland to protest #OregonStandoff occupation, support public lands: image via The Oregonian Verified account @Oregonian, 19 January 2016
Tribal leader worried about safety of artifacts amid #OregonStandoff via @IndianCountry: image via Wilderness Society Verified account @Wilderness, 19 January 2016
Bundy says they're not going to negotiate with FBI; gives federal agencies "warning" #Oregonstandoff: image via Wanda Moore @WandaKTVZ, 19 January 2016
Hundreds gather in Portland to protest #Oregonstandoff- #LiveOnK2 @ 4 with @ReedKATU: image via KATU News Verified account @KATU News, 19 January 2016
Sportsmen group slams #Oregonstandoff as "the misguided actions of a fringe element": image via Wilderness Society Verified account @Wilderness, 19 January 2016
The Oregon Militia Is Turning Out To Be Its Very Own Worst Enemy... image via ePeak USA @periclesusa, 19 January 2016
Posse Politics
Possible Federal Crimes Numerous at Oregon Refuge Take-over
#Oregonstandoff: image via SPLC Verified account @slpcenter, 18 January
2016
Antigovernment Extremists in Oregon Now Plan Their Own Justice System: Bill Morlin, Southern Poverty Law Center, 13 January 2016
Militia and
antigovernment extremists illegally occupying a federal wildlife refuge
in Oregon are now pledging to form a “citizen’s grand jury” to indict
and bring criminal charges against public officials and judges the
occupiers accuse of committing crimes and violating the Constitution.
With such
“indictments,” the extremists’ doctrine would justify their attempts to
make arrests, get judgments or file liens against the targeted public
officials.
Bruce Doucette, a self-proclaimed “U.S. Superior Court judge” from
Denver, arrived at the occupied Malheur Wildlife Refuge near Burns on
Tuesday to “review evidence that public officials may have committed
crimes,” the Oregonian reports.
Doucette, a 54-year-old computer repairman, told the newspaper that
25 local residents “would hear testimony and make decisions in private”
before deciding whether to bring criminal charges. Those findings “would
be put in writing and made public,” the newspaper reports. He didn’t
say what would come next.
Ammon Bundy, the son of Cliven Bundy and the leader of the Oregon
take-over, as well as his key followers have said they believe federal
prosecutors, judges and officials in the Bureau of Land Management broke
laws and violated the Constitution in bringing charges against Dwight
and Steven Hammond.
The
Hammonds’ 20-year battle with federal agencies, culminating with
their jury conviction for arson for illegally burning federal land, and
their mandatory-minimum prison term of five years ignited the current
takeover. Wanting no part of the Bundy’s plan, which was weeks in the
planning , the Hammonds reported to federal prison in California on Jan.
4, the third day of the occupation.
Now apparently bored with using federal computers and cutting down
BLM fencing at the wildlife refuge, the occupiers -– with supplies and
new recruits routinely being shipped in –– seem intent on setting up
their own court system and convening their “citizen’s grand jury.”
There is no historical precedent allowing a self-styled judge or a
citizen’s grand jury would have any import on the outcome of the Malheur
occupiers demands to open public lands, other to than to excite those
embracing a fringe view.
Harney County Sheriff Dave Ward has publicly voiced concerns about
threats made against him and his deputies and their families, as well as
employees of the Bureau of Land Management and the U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Service. The sheriff has urged Bundy and his followers to
leave and even offered to escort them out of the county. The
antigovernment activists refused the offer. They say they will discuss
their “exit strategy” Friday evening at a community meeting in Burns.
The concept of the “citizen’s grand jury” has roots in the Posse
Comitatus movement –- a sometimes violent, anti-Semitic, anti-tax,
antigovernment brand of extremism. Ironically, the Posse Comitatus
movement is generally believed to have started in Oregon.
Henry L. “Mike” Beach, a Portland business man with previous ties to
the anti-Semitic, fascist “Silver Shirt” movement, started the Citizen’s
Law Enforcement Research Committee in 1969. The sheriff’s Posse
Comitatus movement spun out from that.
Beach, who died in 1989, embraced many of the philosophies of William
Potter Gale, another Oregon man, whose anti-Semitic views were the
springboard for Aryan Nations founder and neo-Nazi leader Richard Butler.
“Beach declared that a county’s citizens, as defined by its laws,
could deny state and federal authority to tax, regulate, and govern,”
the Oregon Historical Society says in documenting the history of Posse Comitatus in the state.
“Voters elected the sheriff as the principal enforcement official,
with the authority to deputize male citizens,” the historical society
says. County citizens “reserved the right to establish a grand jury
outside the prevailing court system to indict, judge, and punish public
officials and private citizen.”
Posse Comitatus cells formed throughout the United States from the
1970’s through the ‘90s. Followers, who sometimes formed their own
government entities called “townships,” appointed their owned public
officials and believed only the county sheriff -– not federal or state
law enforcement -– could enforce laws.
One such group –– the infamous “Montana Freemen” –– formed their
“Justus Township” on a 960-acre ranch near remote Jordan, Montana, in
1996. Some of the 16 extremists were wanted for threatening public
officials, writing bad checks or tax evasion.
Unlike the Oregon standoff where there is little or no law
enforcement presence, the FBI rotated its regional SWAT teams into
Jordan, Mont., controlling the perimeter and not allowing anyone in or
out. Without a shot fired, the Freeman siege ended after 81 days –- the
longest FBI standoff in U.S. history. Those involved were all
subsequently convicted and sentenced to lengthy prison terms.
The Posse Comitatus concept embraced by the Montana Freemen is the same anti-federalism being voiced by Bundy and his band.
Federal authorities, including the U.S. Attorney and the U.S.
Attorney General, have been silent on their plans for those involved in
the Oregon takeover, but the parallel to the Montana Freeman standoff,
including the “citizen’s grand jury” development, has to be catching
their attention.
LaVoy "Blue Tarp" Finicum waiting for federal authorities at the Malheur Wildlife Refuge: screenshot via Daily Kos, 8 January 2016
Foster
children removed from home of Oregon militant, says he's now lost
'main source of income': Jen Hayden, Daily Kos, 18 January 2016
Arizona
rancher LaVoy Finicum told Oregon Public Broadcasting that his four
current foster children have been removed while he's in Oregon:
ranch hands children is going to make it financially difficult on the Finicums:
Landed sentry: Arizona rancher LaVoy Finicum keeps guard at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Oregon: photo by AP, 6 January 2016
Robert “LaVoy” Finicum and his wife Jeanette were foster care parents for troubled boys. Finicum estimates that over the past decade, more than 50 boys came through their ranch near Chino Valley, Arizona. The boys often landed there from mental hospitals, drug rehabs and group homes for emotionally distressed youth.
“My ranch has been a great tool for these boys,” Finicum said. “It has done a lot of good.”
Finicum runs a cattle ranch in Arizona where he says he barely breaks even on the cattle and the loss of 50 extra foster
Militant says foster children were pulled from his home: image via Amelia Templeton @ameliaOPB, 16 January 2016
That represents an enormous loss of income for the Finicums. According to a 2010 tax filing, Catholic Charities paid the family $115,343 to foster children in 2009. That year, foster parents were compensated between $22.31 and $37.49 per child, per day, meaning if the Finicums were paid at the maximum rate, they cared for, on average, eight children per day in 2009.
“That was my main source of income,” Finicum said. “My ranch, well, the cows just cover the costs of the ranch. If this means rice and beans for the next few years, so be it. We’re going to stay the course.”Another member of Y’All Qaeda, Blaine Cooper (also known as Stanley Hicks Cooper), posted a rambling video to Facebook on Friday. After saying he was excited about the prospect of Donald Trump coming to help the ranchers (a rumor they’d heard), he mentioned Child Protective Services had kidnapped his children, then said they were with his brother-in-law.
Landed sentry: Arizona rancher LaVoy Finicum keeps guard at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Oregon: photo by AP, 6 January 2016
HOLY CRAP!
When your OWN MOM thinks you're a turd!
Blaine Cooper is PROMINENT #bundymilitia member #Orehonstandoff: image via Cornelia @PaladinCornelia, 18 January 2016
Homo Necans with Patriotic Pocket Protector
A copy of the United States
Constitution in the pocket of a shirt worn by Ammon Bundy, the leader of
an anti-government group occupying buildings at a wildlife refuge in
Oregon: photo by Justin Sullivan / New York Times, 6 January 2016
A
supporter of US Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump attends a
rally at Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia: photo by Nicholas Kamm/AFP, 18 January 2016
A
supporter of US Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump attends a
rally at Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia: photo by Nicholas Kamm/AFP, 18 January 2016
Folks are following along: image via Conrad Wilson @conradjwilson, 18 January 2016
"You know how many endangered species we're dealing with on our ranch right now? Zero, because it doesn't matter any more" -- Ryan Bundy.: tweet via Conrad Wilson @conradjwilson, 18 January 2016
Among things @OPB learned at last night's meeting: Bundy says ranchers don't have to follow endangered species act.: tweet via Ryan Haas @ryanjhaas, 19 January 2016
Cliven Bundy's sons urge Oregon ranchers to rip up BLM contracts, graze cattle on federal lands w/o paying: tweet via Amelia Templeton @ameliaOPB, 16 January 2016
Fourth generation Harney County rancher Scott Franklin listens to the Bundy brothers Monday night in Crane, Oregon: photo by Conrad Wilson/OPB, 18 January 2016
Bundys Urge Oregon Ranchers To Tear Up Grazing Contracts: Conrad Wilson and Amelia Templeton in Crane, Oregon for Oregon Public Broadcasting, 19 January 2016
The militants occupying the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge asked
Harney County ranchers at a meeting Monday night to cancel their leases
with the federal government.
The three-hour meeting took place just outside Crane, Oregon, at a hot springs resort.
Ammon and Ryan Bundy, the leaders of the occupation, said they wanted
to make Harney County an example of a place free from the federal
government.
“The opportunity is now, and the place is Harney County, and you are the people,” said Ammon Bundy. “They’ll never be an opportunity like this again.”
The start of the meeting was not unlike a pitch for a timeshare.
“The opportunity is now, and the place is Harney County, and you are the people,” said Ammon Bundy. “They’ll never be an opportunity like this again.”
The start of the meeting was not unlike a pitch for a timeshare.
The lights dimmed and on came a short film with dramatic music.
But rather than white sandy beaches, the projected images depicted dramatic landscapes of the American West.
In the nearly three hours that followed, the Bundys and a few of their core supporters led a room of largely Harney County ranchers through a presentation. At times it took on the tone of a civics lesson — one that included readings from pocket Constitutions distributed beforehand. At other times, speakers seemed to invoke the fiery passions of a preacher delivering a sermon from the pulpit.
The Pitch
Then came the hard sell.
The militants occupying the Refuge asked Harney County ranchers to tear up their leases with the Bureau of Land Management and stop paying the federal government to graze cattle on public land.
“I’ve done it. Cliven Bundy’s done it,” said LaVoy Finicum, an Arizona rancher and the militants’ defacto spokesman. “Now is the day. Now is the time. Are you going to wait for tomorrow? For next week? Next month? Next year? When? When will you stand up if not now?”
Roughly 75 percent of Harney County is federal land. And just more than 10 percent of people who work in the county are employed by the federal government.
Finicum invited the ranchers to cancel their leases with the BLM at a ceremony before the media at the refuge on Saturday. He said two ranchers, one from New Mexico and another from Harney County, are scheduled to void their contracts publicly.
“I promise, that if you stand, others will stand with you,” Finicum said. “If you stand, God will stand with you. But God cannot stand with you if you do not stand.”
The leaders of the armed occupation described how 25 years ago Cliven Bundy stopped communicating with the BLM.
The militants occupying the Refuge asked Harney County ranchers to tear up their leases with the Bureau of Land Management and stop paying the federal government to graze cattle on public land.
“I’ve done it. Cliven Bundy’s done it,” said LaVoy Finicum, an Arizona rancher and the militants’ defacto spokesman. “Now is the day. Now is the time. Are you going to wait for tomorrow? For next week? Next month? Next year? When? When will you stand up if not now?”
Roughly 75 percent of Harney County is federal land. And just more than 10 percent of people who work in the county are employed by the federal government.
Finicum invited the ranchers to cancel their leases with the BLM at a ceremony before the media at the refuge on Saturday. He said two ranchers, one from New Mexico and another from Harney County, are scheduled to void their contracts publicly.
“I promise, that if you stand, others will stand with you,” Finicum said. “If you stand, God will stand with you. But God cannot stand with you if you do not stand.”
The leaders of the armed occupation described how 25 years ago Cliven Bundy stopped communicating with the BLM.
Ryan
Bundy's View: Breaking from the Federal Government Will Allow Armed Rednecks To Fuck Up Migratory Patterns of Majestic
Animals with Impunity, Just the Way God Planned It
Ryan
Bundy went on to emphasize his view that breaking away from the federal
government means ranchers wouldn’t have to follow federal laws, like
the Endangered Species Act.
Ammon Bundy
and members of the Bundy braintrust (l. to r., Ryan Bundy sitting on
stove, Ammon Bundy, Ryan Payne sitting on counter) at the meeting in
Crane: photo by Conrad Wilson/ OPB, 18 January 2016
“You know how many endangered species we’re dealing with on our
ranch right now?” Bundy asked. “Zero, because it doesn’t matter
anymore.”
LaVoy and the Bundys also acknowledged their proposition is risky. They said any rancher who joined them would get protection from the armed militants led by Payne.
“We are here temporarily to defend you,” Ammon Bundy said. “Eventually, you’ve got to get unified enough to started defending yourselves.”
LaVoy and the Bundys also acknowledged their proposition is risky. They said any rancher who joined them would get protection from the armed militants led by Payne.
“We are here temporarily to defend you,” Ammon Bundy said. “Eventually, you’ve got to get unified enough to started defending yourselves.”
Ranchers Skeptical
As the militants announced the meeting was ending, local resident
Scott Franklin, stood up and entered a tense exchange with the Bundys.
“I’m a fourth generation rancher,” he said. “I’m going to ask you a question. Are we a nation of laws?”
“No,” said Ryan Bundy.
“We’re not?” Franklin replied. “So, we just break laws all the time, and that’s OK?”
“We are a nation of laws, and this law is the one being broken,” Ryan Bundy said, tapping his pocket-sized copy of the Constitution. “And this law is the supreme law of the land.”
“In the end, who decides what the Constitution says? The Supreme Court,” Franklin said.
That comment was met with a chorus of “Nos” from some audience members.
“I’m saying, I’m not going to fight an uphill battle that’s not going to be won,” Franklin said. “You’re asking us to give up everything for this rebel cause.”
Some ranchers were more receptive to the Bundys’ message. They spoke of their frustration with the environmental regulations on BLM land, and their belief that the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge wants to grow by acquiring ranches.
Buck Taylor runs cattle on about 200,000 acres of land, including private land, BLM allotments and land in the refuge.
After listening to the presentation, Taylor said he was considering the Bundys’ proposition, but thought there should be more meetings to discuss it.
“I am drinking the Kool Aid,” he said. “I haven’t swallowed it yet. I am open to the idea.”
Dwane Schrock, who ranches on private land near Crane, Oregon, also walked away with a positive impression.
“It was good; very informational,” he said. “People need to be educated. If they’re not educated, they’re not going to know what’s going on.”
After the meeting, Franklin, the rancher who’d spoken against the proposition, said he was ready for the Bundys to go. He said he has relatives who work for the BLM, and he was struggling to keep his family calm.
“I know that the refuge is never going to be in private hands,” he said. “Are they going to Yosemite? Are they going to Yellowstone? Where else are they going to do this?”
And on the Eighth Day, God Appointed the Bundy Clan to Fuck Up Pretty Much Everything Alive in His Creation At Will, As the Constitution Sort Of Allows -- and Be Rewarded With Great Snacks
“I’m a fourth generation rancher,” he said. “I’m going to ask you a question. Are we a nation of laws?”
“No,” said Ryan Bundy.
“We’re not?” Franklin replied. “So, we just break laws all the time, and that’s OK?”
“We are a nation of laws, and this law is the one being broken,” Ryan Bundy said, tapping his pocket-sized copy of the Constitution. “And this law is the supreme law of the land.”
“In the end, who decides what the Constitution says? The Supreme Court,” Franklin said.
That comment was met with a chorus of “Nos” from some audience members.
“I’m saying, I’m not going to fight an uphill battle that’s not going to be won,” Franklin said. “You’re asking us to give up everything for this rebel cause.”
Some ranchers were more receptive to the Bundys’ message. They spoke of their frustration with the environmental regulations on BLM land, and their belief that the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge wants to grow by acquiring ranches.
Buck Taylor runs cattle on about 200,000 acres of land, including private land, BLM allotments and land in the refuge.
After listening to the presentation, Taylor said he was considering the Bundys’ proposition, but thought there should be more meetings to discuss it.
“I am drinking the Kool Aid,” he said. “I haven’t swallowed it yet. I am open to the idea.”
Dwane Schrock, who ranches on private land near Crane, Oregon, also walked away with a positive impression.
“It was good; very informational,” he said. “People need to be educated. If they’re not educated, they’re not going to know what’s going on.”
After the meeting, Franklin, the rancher who’d spoken against the proposition, said he was ready for the Bundys to go. He said he has relatives who work for the BLM, and he was struggling to keep his family calm.
“I know that the refuge is never going to be in private hands,” he said. “Are they going to Yosemite? Are they going to Yellowstone? Where else are they going to do this?”
And on the Eighth Day, God Appointed the Bundy Clan to Fuck Up Pretty Much Everything Alive in His Creation At Will, As the Constitution Sort Of Allows -- and Be Rewarded With Great Snacks
Ammon Bundy. The rancher said God told him to lead the protest in Burns, Oregon: photo via Facebook via The Independent, 6 January 2015
Ammon Bundy talking life, liberty, property before about 30 people in Crane. Feels like a civics class: image via Conrad Wilson @conradjwilson, 18 January 2016
Not only have I been to the mountain top, I plan on still staying up here now that I'm here. #MLKDay #Oregonstandoff: image via Ammon Bundy @AmmonBundy, 18 January 2016
Room shot. Payne talking with Ryan and Ammon (hat) Bundy looking on #Oregonstandoff: image via Conrad Wilson @conradjwilson, 18 January 2016
Refuge
These photos from 1908 convinced Teddy Roosevelt to create the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Oregon (first called the Malheur Lake Reservation). That’s the place currently occupied by anti-federalist militants. Finley and Bohlman’s hand-colored images were provided by Bob Sallinger of The Audobon Society of Portland: portfolio and text via Skunk Bear, 6 January 2016
Great Horned Owl at Malheur National Wildlife Refuge: photo by William Finley and Herman Bohlman/Audubon Society of Portland, 1908 (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Digital Library)
White-faced Ibis at Malheur National Wildlife Refuge: photo by William
Finley and Herman Bohlman/Audubon Society of Portland, 1908 (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Digital Library)
Malheur
National Wildlife refuge is an essential stop along many bird
populations' migratory journey, including that of the American White Pelican: photo by William
Finley and Herman Bohlman/Audubon Society of Portland, 1908 (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Digital Library)
Northern Pintail chick at Malheur
National Wildlife Refuge: photo by William
Finley and Herman Bohlman/Audubon Society of Portland, 1908 (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Digital Library)
Mallard at Malheur
National Wildlife Refuge: photo by William
Finley and Herman Bohlman/Audubon Society of Portland, 1908 (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Digital Library)
Mallard at Malheur Lake bird nest: photo by William Finley and Herman Bohlman/Audubon Society of Portland, 1908 (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Digital Library)
The coalition behind the Malheur Wildlife National Refuge wants to restore Malheur Lake as a viable habitat for the various bird populations that frequent it.: photo by William Finley and Herman Bohlman/Audubon Society of Portland, 1908 (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Digital Library)
Mallard at Malheur Lake bird nest: photo by William Finley and Herman Bohlman/Audubon Society of Portland, 1908 (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Digital Library)
The coalition behind the Malheur Wildlife National Refuge wants to restore Malheur Lake as a viable habitat for the various bird populations that frequent it.: photo by William Finley and Herman Bohlman/Audubon Society of Portland, 1908 (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Digital Library)
A
burrowing owl at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge: photo by
Candace Larson via Audobon Society of Portland, 6 January 2016
American White Pelican at Malheur Lake: photo by William
Finley and Herman Bohlman/Audubon Society of Portland, 1908 (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Digital Library)
Western Meadowlark (Sturnella neglecta), Malheur National
Wildlife Refuge, Oregon.
An abundant and familiar bird of open country across the western two-thirds of the continent, the Western Meadowlark
is known for its melodic song. It is frequently seen singing along
roadsides in native grassland and agricultural areas, in this case near
Burns, Oregon.: photo by Dan Dzurisin, 11 April 2008
Western Meadowlark (Sturnella neglecta) with prey, along Ruh-Red Road near Burns, Oregon and Malheur National Wildlife Refuge: photo by Dan Dzurisin, 18 September 2012
Ranch land in Harney County, where 7,126 people are spread across an area larger than Massachusetts: photo by Ruth Fremson/The New York Times, 18 January 2016
4 comments:
SAVE OUR
PUBLIC
LAND from
INVASIVE
SRECIES
It's heartening to see non-morons protesting the Bundy occupation. I hope Obama has the balls to prosecute these yokels.
Terry,
Thanks very much for pipping a squeak in the face of the swelling tide of silent collusion in the dying-off of whatever may have been appealing about this country, though maybe I'm missing the good parts.
Good on the valiant push-back Portlanders in their brave Gore-Tex with the faux endangered-species-print umbrellas, at least and in any case.
If the message thus gently but firmly and in fact rather humorously sent (problem there, expecting rednecks to get the joke) is reaching anybody higher up in the power train, however, we're not yet seeing the effects.
Sarah Palin, who I suspect cares not very much about the protecting of species more beautiful than her own, certainly appears to care very much about protecting her own -- her own drunken abusive offspring, that is. She's just one minute ago blamed all the bad behaviour of her son Truck or Track or whatever the unfortunate appellation, upon, you guessed it, Obama!!!
Now, when she was so famously and adorably using her dog as a doorstep, she at least wasn't blaming it on Obama, so evidently there is a progression, or advancement, or one might even say an increase in the sophistication in the blaming.
But as she is obviously quite happy to have her dog walked upon by the filthy boots of her red meat-filled, drunken peckerwood neighbours -- what do you imagine, Timberline? -- it's hard to think she'd have any comment on the Malheur occupation other than to encourage the Bundys' cunning plan to split up the Wildlife Refuge into easily exploitable patches for mining, logging, hunting, cattle ranching and all those other traditional white-eyes pursuits which once made America the most appalling Empire in the history of planet Earth, with its long and distinguished history of appalling empires.
It's hard to know what to say about any of this. Quite possibly nothing at all would be best.
Locals demand Oregon militia leave refuge: 'It's time for you to go home': The Guardian, 20 January 2016
But where, really, is home, any more?
Here we are, in America. Perhaps not as bad as being in Oklahoma, but...
Evidently there's SOMEBODY in Arizona. I mean Oklahoma. Calling it home and all.
And anything we may say in or about Oklahoma and anything we may say in or about New Hampshire, or Oregon...?
And who are "we"? And why are we saying these things? When we could be doing something more interesting. Like say, I don't know... watching tv?
After all, Palin is there. Trump is there. Ammon Bundy is there. What else do we need to know? And do we even need to know anything at all? Won't it all just come back to harm us, in same way... we're not sure what way, but...
___
"Palin reuses some lines from yesterday – she describes a kind of transitive property of awesome culminating with the KICK ISIS ASS line.
“'We need to elect a commander in chief who will respect our troops,' Palin says. Cheers.
“'A commander in chief who understands that we, as Americans, you here in Oklahoma especially, we love our freedom. And when you love your freedom, you respect the vets.
“'And when you respect the vets...you let them do their job and go KiCk ISIS ASS.'
"This, of course, is rejoined by chants of USA! USA! USA!"
... still, the news isn't all bad. For example, turns out there are certain bird species the Bundy Klan seem to favor. The American White Rubberpecker, for one. Especially on a cold night at the commandeered wildlife refuge / new-patriot hillbilly clan-fort.
Ammon Bundy: The Night of Burning Peckers
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