Terrorist insurrection against the US Government? OK as long as you're white

[Jaron]

Mormon inbreeding?

[Eddie Teach]

I'm surprised Jaron had the 500 gold pieces to claim Defender of the Faith. 

[Jaron]

I'm surprised Jaron had the 500 gold pieces to claim Defender of the Faith. 

[grumbler]

Mormon inbreeding?

Indeed.  In this forum we don't tolerate that sort of redundancy in this forum.

[CountDeMoney]

'Murica fer 'Murricans.  To pick up the tab for $6.5 million.

$6 million will go to restore Malheur refuge, cover other costs of standoff
The Oregonian
March 23, 2016

BURNS – Crews from a national cleaning company bustle from building to building at the headquarters of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, ravens watching from perches in the towering cottonwoods outside.
Big steel boxes serve as giant garbage drops. Truck-mounted vacuums whine with industrial strength. Workers come and go from big cargo trailers, drawing supplies to clean carpets, wash walls and remove stains.
The compound is under one giant spring cleaning. The workers are scrubbing away traces left by armed militants.
Dan Ashe, director of the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, stood outside the closed visitor center Wednesday, vowing that the refuge would be better than ever after the crews are done.
The 41-day occupation of the refuge will give way to "something more" than before – the reserve will become a symbol to the rest of the country that collaboration, not confrontation, endures, Ashe said.
He trekked to the Oregon desert to meet with community leaders two days after Interior Secretary Sally Jewell visited.
Ashe and Fish & Wildlife employees who briefed reporters read from the same script as Jewell had earlier in the week: The refuge is a national model for getting along with your neighbors.
Ammon E. Bundy, 40, of Emmett, Idaho, said the opposite when he led a group of anti-government protesters in taking over the refuge headquarters on Jan. 2. The siege resulted in one death and the federal indictment so far of 27 people, including Bundy.
Federal officials shared photos of what they found at the compound after the FBI had scoured it for explosives and evidence. The photos captured scenes of messy living – clothes strewn around one room, an office ransacked with chairs knocked askew and equipment on the floor, a Jim Beam whiskey bottle tucked among couch cushions.
Removing the debris and repairing the damage is likely to take until early summer. Until then, the headquarters remains closed but the public is free to roam the rest of the 187,700-acre bird sanctuary.
Ashe said the occupation will cost his agency roughly $6 million. About $2 million of that came during the takeover and included paying to move the refuge's 17 employees out of town for safety to live at government expense in hotels for weeks.
The rest, Ashe said, is going for repairs and upgrades to make the refuge the bright star in the national constellation of refuges.
Still, the takeover has changed the government mindset about such remote installations. The agency remains worried, Ashe said, that an occupation could happen again here or elsewhere. Those who work on the Malheur must remain vigilant against a repeat of January's takeover, he said.
The refuge, 30 miles southeast of Burns, is known nationally for collaboration among government, environmentalists and ranchers, he said: "a great example of good government, good community, good intentions."
At a bluff on Wright's Ridge, on the refuge's northern shoulder, local leaders echoed that.
Gary Marshall, a longtime local rancher and chairman of the High Desert Partnership, said years of work by diverse groups arrived at a plan for the refuge that accounts for all needs, from environmental to economic.
With the water-logged refuge landscape stretching out behind him, Marshall noted that none of the occupiers talked to him or others to learn what had gone on. Bundy repeatedly said at news conferences that the refuge and other federal lands had been mismanaged in ways that oppressed local ranchers.
"They were misinformed or they didn't care," Marshall said.
Dan Nichols, another local rancher, said he decided recently not to retire after 20 years on the Harney County commission but will seek re-election because he wants to be part of refuge's future.
Back at the refuge compound, fish biologist Linda Beck said she's glad to be back to work, but faces a daunting task. The occupation disrupted plans to remove invasive carp by commercial fishing earlier this year. The prolific carp consume habitat sorely needed by birds.
"We lost the opportunity to fish for these fish in a really condensed setting," Beck said. Malheur Lake covered about 3,000 acres at the beginning of the year. Now, it stands at about 20,000 acres. Still, the refuge and its partners will try netting fish starting in May.
But Beck estimated the disrupted work will cost about three years of carp control because the fish are such efficient breeders.
By day's end, Beck and her colleagues were ready for their next appointment.
They were heading for a barbecue set up to welcome them back to duty – and back to the community. Their hosts were the 20 or so ranchers who graze cattle in partnership with the refuge.

-- Les Zaitz

The 41-day armed occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge by angry ranchers ended in mid-February, bringing to a close a dumb standoff that was a drag on federal resources and resulted in the death of LaVoy Finicum.

However, weeks after the standoff ended the property is still far from usable.

That's because, in addition to leaving behind booby traps, the dildo-waving ranchers also left behind a huge mess, bringing the overall cost of their stunt to an estimated $6.5 million when you count cleanup, repair, and the cost of relocating federal workers during the standoff.

The extent of the ranchers' filth-making is well documented in a series of photos collected by KATU 2, which depict piles of garbage, structural damage to the building, and holes the ranchers dug on the property. Refuge employees say the ranchers also stole personal items from their offices.

The most expensive thing they futzed up was likely the septic system, which the 20-odd occupiers clogged and ruined "due to overuse," according to the Bend Bulletin.

This was presumably what led to them having to defecate al fresco and leaving behind a "trench" of human feces for clean-up crews to deal with, when they were finally removed from the property.

http://katu.com/news/local/photos-damage-at-the-malheur-national-wildlife-refuge

[Tonitrus]

Misleading to lump "upgrades" into the cost total.

[CountDeMoney]

Stop hating America.

And besides, the procurement process is enough of a bitch, no need to go through it twice.

[Razgovory]

Well the criminals are in jail (except for the guy who they shot).

[dps]

Misleading to lump "upgrades" into the cost total.

It's a bargain at $6.5M anyway--it usually cost the government that much just to unclog a toilet.

[CountDeMoney]

Like the thread title says, bitches.  LET FREEDOM RING

Nation
Ammon Bundy, other militants found not guilty in Oregon standoff trial
BY Conrad Wilson, OPB
October 27, 2016 at 7:43 PM EDT

Ammon and Ryan Bundy have been found not guilty of conspiracy. Their five co-defendants Jeff Banta, Shawna Cox, David Fry, Kenneth Medenbach and Neil Wampler have all been found not guilty as well.

Jurors were unable to reach a verdict on Ryan Bundy's theft of government property charge.

The jury returned its verdict after some six weeks of testimony followed by less than six hours deliberations, and the last minute replacement of a juror after an allegation surfaced that he was biased.

The jury was instructed to disregard their previous work and to re-consider the evidence

The charges stem from the 41-day armed occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge near Burns in eastern Oregon's high desert. The armed protest began Jan. 2 and ended when the final four occupiers surrendered to the FBI on Feb. 11.

Prosecutors initially charged Ammon Bundy, his brother Ryan Bundy, and 24 others with conspiracy to prevent Bureau of Land Management and U.S. Fish and Wildlife employees from doing their jobs at the wildlife refuge in Harney County. Some defendants named in the indictment faced weapons charges for carrying firearms in a federal facility, as well as theft of government property.

Only seven defendants went to trial in September. Others have pleaded guilty or are scheduled to go to trial in February 2017.

Through the government's case, prosecutors attempted to show the jury evidence about when the alleged conspiracy began, as well as how the occupation unfolded and ultimately ended.

The government relied heavily on testimony from law enforcement, including Harney County Sheriff David Ward, as well as dozens of FBI agents who responded to the occupation or processed evidence at the Malheur refuge after the occupation ended.

"At the end of the day, there is an element of common sense that demonstrates the guilt of these defendants," Assistant U.S. Attorney Ethan Knight said during his closing arguments during the trial. "These defendants took over a wildlife refuge and it wasn't theirs."

Conversely, the defense sought to make its case about a political protest – one about protesting the federal government's ownership and management of public lands.

"The people have to insist that the government is not our master; they are our servants," Ryan Bundy said during his closing statement to the jury.

Bundy added the occupation had "nothing to do with impeding and preventing the employees of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge."

The occupation in rural eastern Oregon fueled a long running debate about the role of the federal government when it comes of managing public lands, especially for ranching and other natural resource-based professions.

Throughout the armed protest, occupation leader Ammon Bundy frequently said their goal was to shift the federally-owned land to local control. During presses conferences and interviews, Bundy frequently said he wanted to "get the ranchers back to ranching, get the loggers back to logging and miners back to mining."

While federal prosecutors worked to keep their case focused on conspiracy, the trial quickly came to symbolize the growing divide between urban and rural America.

"How did any of these people benefit from protesting the death of rural America?" Attorney Matt Schindler, hybrid counsel for defendant Ken Medenbach, said during his closing statements to the jury.

Five of the seven defendants took the stand in their own defense during the trial. Occupation leader Ammon Bundy's testimony stretched over the course of three days and included stories about growing up on a ranch and his family role in the 2014 armed standoff in Bunkerville, Nevada.

With the first Oregon trial concluded, the Bundy brothers and several other defendants who participated in the Malheur occupation will now travel to Nevada, where they face charges for their roles in the Bunkerville standoff.

Just in time for the rigged election!

[11B4V]

Fucking white privilege.

[mongers]

Listening to a Reuter's War College podcast about the Armed Militias in the USA:

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-militias-war-college-podcast-idUSKCN1252EI

worth a listening, only half an hour.


Also it ties details of the above Bundy Oregon standoff with the wider militia movement.

And their invovlement with the Trump movement.

[The Brain]

Is there anything whites can't do?

[Syt]

Contrast the Oregon stuff with how authorities handle the protests over the pipeline in North Dakota:

http://edition.cnn.com/2016/10/22/us/dakota-access-pipeline-arrests/index.html

[mongers]

Contrast the Oregon stuff with how authorities handle the protests over the pipeline in North Dakota:

http://edition.cnn.com/2016/10/22/us/dakota-access-pipeline-arrests/index.html

Interesting point, but I think in the case of the Oregon and even more so in that Arizona road stand-off, the Feds handled it well.
The specialist in the above podcast said they avoided a blood bath in Arizona by withdrawing, as the militias were itching for a fight and it was just 2-3 dozen agents vs 100+ militants who were more heavily armed. They were also mixed in with women and children so apprently non-lethal/tear gas wasn't considered an option.

What I found chilling, was she said a couple of time, it felt like thes US was at similar stage and at a tension similar to that just before the Oklahoma bombing.