Submitted by Elaine Magliaro, Weekend Contributor
Cliven Bundy, the Nevada rancher and scofflaw, was hailed by some people as a folk hero and patriot recently when he—and his followers–engaged in a standoff with the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). Caty Enders (Esquire) described the scene in Bunkerville, Nevada, as pundits and politicians descended on the Bundy camp last week “to throw in their American flag hats with the BLM protestors.” She said that a FOX News van had been parked by the side of the road for days—and that “militia snipers kept a trained watch” up on a ridge “as Bundy held court.” She added that disciples of Bundy came from far and wide “to share their personal theories as to why the government was enforcing a court order.”
Bundy has had a number of advocates who have spoken in support of his militant stance against the BLM. Those advocates included some prominent politicians and members of the media. Sean Hannity was one of Bundy’s biggest boosters and helped to make him into a folk hero. Hannity talked with Bundy on a number of occasions on his Fox News show. Joan Walsh (Salon) asked a pertinent question about Bundy on Friday: “How does a guy who declared early on ‘I don’t recognize the United States government as even existing’ become a folk hero in the first place?” She said that both Hannity and Fox News should have realized that the Nevada rancher was “too toxic” prior to his “ongoing self-exposure as a racist.” She added that the extremism of Bundy’s statement about the US government “should have been warning enough that Bundy was not only crazy but dangerous…”
Enders posed a question that was in the same vein as Walsh’s: “Exactly how difficult was it, though, to determine pretty early on that Bundy and his followers were using the threat of force to back up some terrifyingly misguided beliefs?” Enders provided some insight into the thinking and beliefs of Bundy and disciples of his with whom she talked.
Members of the Bundy Brigade Speak Out
Enders spoke to a militia member named Mark who was affiliated with the Oath Keepers group. Mark explained to her “the truth behind public land management.” He said, “The assumption is that the BLM is part of the federal government. But we need to check the facts on that one. The BLM doesn’t work for the government: they work for the United Nations. They might as well be wearing blue helmets. If we find out there’s money being exchanged between Harry Reid and the Chinese government, no one should be surprised.”
Another Bundy disciple told Enders that “Bar-certified lawyers, like the ones who prosecuted Bundy, have sworn loyalty to the British government, whose statutes encourage sex with clients. ‘That’s what they do with all their clients.’”
Enders spent time talking to a former cop who chuckled as he related a story about one of his buddies who once worked as a sheriff in New Mexico. He said his buddy got into some trouble after he pulled over a group of illegals one night. He said his pal “didn’t have room to haul ‘em all, so he put a chain around their neck and put a padlock through it, went to the next one, then he chained ‘em to a tree!” Enders said that the former cop then buckled with laughter as he told her how his friend “left ‘em and went to town to get his pickup to haul ‘em all back in. So, you might imagine, that didn’t play well — ha! You’re a young’un, but everything wasn’t against the law, way back when.” The former cop also told Enders that it was now being proved that the Bureau of Land management was acting on orders “from Troy and Harry Reid, who want to build a solar farm on the land — or a wind farm.”
One of Bundy’s disciples drove a beige sedan covered with the following message:
IF YOU WERE BORN IN 1980 AND AFTER. YOU MAY BE IMPLANTED WITH A GOVERNMENT MICROCHIP WITHOUT YOUR KNOWLEDGE: GOOGLE DOCTORS THAT REMOVE MICROCHIPS.
Cliven Bundy, God’s Messenger
During the time that Enders spent at the Bundy camp, she witnessed one of the public addresses the Nevada rancher made to his followers. She said that as Bundy—who had just been given a standing ovation—took the stage, he didn’t seem pleased. She said that Bundy reproached the crowd “for failing to follow the word of God – to the letter …”— which he claimed was being “delivered through him.” He wasn’t happy that his supporters failed “to follow his instructions to tear down the toll booths at Lake Mead and disarm the Park Service.” Bundy added, “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.” He continued, “The records of our bible — how long have they been kept? Thousands of years. They’ve been turned over generation after generation, buried, and all kinds of things happen to ‘em. And yet, here, something I felt was inspired [by God] and yet we haven’t even carried it forth for even a couple of days. Shame on us.”
Bundy expressed frustration because his followers hadn’t been able to deter the BLM “within an hour”—“as the revelation had prophesied.” When an hour had passed, Bundy reportedly got into his bulldozer and decided to march on the BLM himself. His dozer got stuck in the mud—and that led to Bundy’s receiving yet another revelation: “It come to my mind real plain — the good Lord said, ‘Bundy, it’s not your job, it’s THEIR job.’” Bundy reiterated that revelation a little differently in an effort to ensure that his followers understood what he had just told them, “This is not my job, it’s YOUR job.”
Bundy said that he received a message that morning after he prayed. He claimed that he heard a voice say, “Sheriff Gillespie, your work is not done. Every sheriff across the United States, take the guns away from the United States bureaucrats.”
Uncivil Disobedience
Even The Weekly Standard–as well as Glenn Beck–has been critical of Cliven Bundy. The magazine’s Scrapbook explained the whole Bundy situation with regard to grazing fees and court rulings. The Scrapbook said that what had transpired over the years didn’t sound “like the dread hand of tyranny, in Nevada or Washington, oppressing an innocent farmer, or pushing some law-abiding citizen around.” It said it sounded, instead, “like a rancher gaming the system to his own financial advantage, and disguising his scheme in populist rhetoric: refusing to pay a tax which others must pay, and ‘tying up the courts’—for two decades!—as he continues to ignore the law.”
The Weekly Standard:
Far from acting in an arbitrary or capricious manner, the federal government has shown patience and forbearance in the face of lawlessness that customarily lands people in jail. It is worth noting that Bundy’s rancher-neighbors and the Nevada Cattlemen’s Association, who contend with the same federal policies, offer him little support.
Apocalypse Cow – Welfare Rancher, Part 1 (The Daily Show)
Apocalypse Cow – Welfare Rancher, Part 2 (The Daily Show)
SOURCES
Fox News’ new laughingstock: Cliven Bundy — and Stephen Colbert — will destroy Sean Hannity (Salon)
Uncivil Disobedience (The Weekly Standard)
The views expressed in this posting are the author’s alone and not those of the blog, the host, or other weekend bloggers. As an open forum, weekend bloggers post independently without pre-approval or review. Content and any displays or art are solely their decision and responsibility.
God bless you, Annie. I pray that is what happens. There are about 5 others who hopefully follow your lead.
The great Groucho Marx had a word of the day on his show. It appears the word is “Disparaging” today. I have disparaged no one. The quote used to show disparagement is not that @ all. I have disparaged no one who legitimately collects disability. I testified on this thread I have worked for TRULY injured people and found that the most satisfying.
oliveoyl
Thanks. I thought he said something about not reading links. I didn’t know that it also applied to providing links.
Spinelli, I think Professor Turley asked us to ignore you. That’s exactly what I’m going to do.
Annie, You came here for one reason, and everyone knows it.
Spinelli disparages those who worked for many years and paid into the system and receive disability because of a true disability, which I think coming from him is INCREDIBLY hypocritical.
Seems like old times, just new aliases. I think the anonymity rule needs to be reconsidered. That is what would solve almost everything. Some people have more aliases then convicted con men I’ve investigated.
For the record, Mr. Spinelli says:
“Focus Chuck, I’m talking about disability fraud ”
(It would be nice if we could drop the “Focus” meme)
This is 2014, and they no longer send checks. Many, if not most, recipients do not have bank accounts. They have an EBT card for their SSI and another one for Food Stamps. The food stamp card will not pay for items which the bar code identifies as non-food, or food that is not on the approved list.
The simple fact they have to use the EBT card makes purchases much easier to track, and even the location of ATMs where they might withdraw cash. Food stamp EBT cards are not used for cash withdrawals, for good reason.
Yes indeed someone who continuously brings up Professor Turley’s loss to bolster his own arguments is sick and as low. Disgusting.
Gene, I wonder how many people telling Professor Turley the same story regarding a certain someone will it take for him to realize that this toxic person causes 99% of the discord here. From threats to invasion of privacy to insulting almost every single commenter and GBer here, it’s incredibly difficult to ignore day after day. If everyone who has been the victim of this person left this blog, there would be precious few left.
feynman,
To quote Nick himself from a few years ago:
“. . . I don’t do links. I gave a link once that I believed to be legit. It was infected w/ a nasty virus that crashed my, and other computers who linked to it. I felt horrible and vowed to never make the same mistake twice. Just Google most corrupt US cities for chrissake.”
http://jonathanturley.org/2012/12/05/gunning-down-the-colonel-chicago-puppy-shot-twice-by-police-family-then-ticketed-three-days-later-after-speaking-with-media/#comment-459963
Gee, sounds just like his current disparaging response to Chuck:
“The numbers are everywhere Chucky. I just gave some. Read them and get back to me if you have any questions. They’re everywhere w/ a quick Google search.”
There is indeed an influx of new and pernicious trolls flinging insults, asking questions 50 times, being infantile, and they are being encouraged by malcontents from other venues. That is indeed a new challenge for Jonathan. There are people who want this blog to fail for narcissistic reasons. To create all this on a tough weekend, and then feign concern for his grief is disgusting.
Chuck,
LePage is more than math challenged–he’s a real nutcase.
Maine’s Madman Governor Paul LePage Strikes Again
Just 100 days into Gov. Paul LePage’s Tea Party-fueled administration, his fellow Republicans are fighting back, defeating his push to bring back toxic baby bottles. Now Maine faces a choice between the Republicanism of moderate Olympia Snowe or the more bellicose LePage, reports Colin Woodard.
4/6/11
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2011/04/16/paul-lepage-maines-madman-governor-strikes-again.html
Excerpt:
After November’s election, Maine Republicans had reason to feel heady. Their candidate, Tea Party-backed conservative Paul LePage, was headed to the governor’s mansion in Augusta, where the GOP had won a majority in both legislative chambers for the first time in nearly half a century.
But a hundred days into his administration, Gov. LePage has managed to alienate legislators, invigorate his opponents, and generate more negative national press attention than any Maine politician since James G. Blaine, who retired from the U.S. Senate in 1881. On the eve of Martin Luther King Jr. Day, he told the NAACP to “kiss my butt.” He defended a campaign to lift a ban on the endocrine disruptor bisphenol-A in baby bottles by joking that the worst thing that could happen is “some women may have little beards.” Then he had a mural illustrating the history of Maine’s labor movement taken out of a Department of Labor waiting room after an anonymous letter compared it to murals in North Korea aimed at “brainwashing the masses.” The removal triggered large protests by artists and union members, and a possible federal Department of Labor fine in excess of $60,000, for breaching the terms of a grant that helped cover the mural’s purchase, and widespread editorial condemnation, with the Bangor Daily News describing the act as “straight out of Orwell’s world.”
“The governor will complete his term with a major focus on regulatory, pension, and health-care reforms, lowering taxes and energy costs, and creating jobs,” said a spokeswoman.
“Gov. LePage has spent the early days of his administration seeking out third-rail issues,” says Ron Schmidt Jr., chairman of the University of Southern Maine’s political science department. “In traditional political math, he should be trying to grow his base”—LePage won by 1 point, with 38 percent of the vote—“but things like the mural could even erode his base.”
The central question in Maine politics has been whether Republican lawmakers would stand by LePage’s more contentious proposals, such as rolling back all environmental laws to match laxer federal standards. Recently it has become clear that many of them are frustrated with the governor, and that the feeling is mutual. On Monday, eight of 20 Republican state senators criticized the governor’s often bellicose behavior in an op-ed published by the state’s largest newspaper chain. The next day, LePage’s bisphenol-A initiative was rejected 35-0 in the state senate, after a 145-3 defeat in the House.
How can the recession make someone disabled??? I’ll tell you how, you fake an injury or disability because you don’t want to work a “demeaning job.”
Uh oh.
I just caught up with new comments. I suspect Mr. Spinelli will take a small shift shortly.
From Mr. Spinelli’s CNN Money report (purportedly) supporting his opinion about out-of-control disability fraud:
“There are many reasons for the increase in disability claims, most notably the recession, an aging population, advances in medical technology and a decade of war.”
Here is the link:
http://money.cnn.com/2013/04/11/news/economy/disability-payments/index.html
In my opinion, there is not one iota of support for his claim.
How does a guy who runs through a litany of his credentials do this?
http://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/economy-budget/195559-social-secuity-disability-fraud-is-rare
Social Security Disablity fraud is rare. I bet there ARE some on the dole here, yes indeedy I most certainly do. I know the website to go to to report fraud BTW.
Focus Chuck, I’m talking about disability fraud, not EBT. That subject has been beaten like a herd of dead horses here. And Maine is like a different country, lots of French Canadians.
SS Disability has soared under Obama and the fund is nearly insolvent. Get deadbeats on the dole and then you got a Dem vote. I bet there are some on some dole here.
Nick I know from my wife’s personal experience that at least in our area of Texas, there are very few who get disability. In fact it is the worst place in the country. In fact, the lawyers were complaining that too many of their clients who were denied disability were DYING before they could collect SS payments. I think it is a little hasty to make such outrageous claims on such little data and numbers.