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.
There are only a few things dumber than Cliven Bundy’s comments: (1) BLM’s land management practices, (2) BLM’s absolutely moronic response to the situation (like guys, how about waiting until he sells the cattle and then seizing the proceeds or freezing his bank account to collect the grazing fees, duh?), (3) the media’s ignoring the first 2 issues and covering the story only when Bundy says something stupid.
BTW, which Bundy is Cliven related to, Ted or Al?
Paul,
“Your grammar could use a little tightening up though as well as your logic. You are over-using your thesaurus.”
How so?
Count the ways — you know: 1, 2, 3.
Now that you’ve brought up grammar, though, here is your jewel:
“Are you intimating that either I or Nick is not a friend of Charlton?”
Hmm, let’s see: singular possessive with plural reference (“is not a friend” vs. “are not friends”); the use of “I” as a self-referential pronoun, which has been demarcated for many decades; either vs. neither; or vs. nor — which of course makes your whole sentence the epitome of bad grammar.
You brought it up; I let it pass upon reading as I don’t care about such trivialities as they usually express great frustrations of the author’s incompetence to deal with real issues.
Thanks for your current and future efforts.
Never saw it, Paul. Adam Sandler bats only about .150 in making movies. He is a Republican, one of the few acknowledged ones in Hollywood. There are more Hollywood Republicans in the closet than homosexuals.
I would urge them to take a selfie while in the closet and share.
Little Nicky was one of the worst movies every made, sorry Nick, nothing personal.
Teji Malik
Well then, Iet’s go with your plan and THEN put him in jail!
Call me Nicky if your wish.
Paul,
“oliveoyl – I find your response to me at 8:48 insulting. Are you intimating that either I or Nick is not a friend of Charlton?”
And the obfuscations of the weary and beat upon tag-team and their claims to betterment of this here blog are exposed in the non-comprehension of simple use of language for the use of striking a new claim.
Otherwise known as a shell game.
Gotta study now. You and Nick work out.
Hmmm, little Nicky: The story revolves around a struggle to determine which of Satan’s (Harvey Keitel) three sons will succeed their father as ruler of Hell. Adrian (Rhys Ifans) is the most devious, Cassius (Tom Lister Jr.) is the cruelest and Nicky (Adam Sandler) is their father’s favourite. Adrian and Cassius claim that Nicky’s mother is a goat and torment him by controlling his body with their minds. Nicky has had a speech impediment and a disfigured jaw since Cassius hit him in the face with a shovel when he was a child.
Bron, Good to see you back, bro!
Paul, My old man’s name was Nick but he had the foresight to not make me a Jr. So I was “Little Nick” or “Nicky.” I’ve been called “Nicky” here derisively and I just chuckle to myself that it really is a term of endearment from my family. You came back to a real middle school today, where people are acting like children and going on and on about a ‘y!’ C’est la vie.
Paul,
“I have two friends who call me Pauly . . .”
Note the qualifying noun, Paul?
Paul S,
Okay. Let’s just say it is not well intentioned. Please don’t do it.
Thanks.
Tej Malik
My first choice is throw him in jail but agree that getting the lien is done easily and quietly. But then what? Won’t he still take them to auction? How does the government interrupt the sale?
Feyman: It is simple, if you understand our banking system. He can not put a cent in his own pocket when he takes them to auction.
keebler – I have two friends who call me Pauly, there is nothing mean-spirited about it.
Cliven Bundy, the Dishonest Left, and the Welfare State
“One could almost hear the left’s collective sigh of relief upon reading Cliven Bundy’s idiotic comments about race. Bundy suggested, among other absurdities, that slavery might have been better than life under America’s welfare state. “Finally,” the left’s attitude seemed to be, “we no longer have to argue about whether federal land policies are abusive; we can just resort to our MO of tarring our opponents as racists.”
If you Google “Cliven Bundy racist,” you will see the exuberance with which the left has attacked Bundy. What you will not see is much interest from the left in the ways the welfare state has decimated many neighborhoods in which black Americans live. On that point, Bundy was partly right.
Welfare dependency is not, as Bundy absurdly suggests, worse than slavery. For starters, it is possible for individuals to escape welfare dependency by their personal efforts. Further, the rights violations involved with seizing people’s wealth to finance the welfare state hardly compare to the rights violations of enslaving human beings. However, the fact that the welfare state is not as horrible as slavery hardly counts in its favor.”
http://www.theobjectivestandard.com/2014/04/cliven-bundy-dishonest-left-welfare-state/?utm_source=TOS+Commentary+%26+Announcements&utm_campaign=6ade38f882-New_from_TOS_Blog4_27_2014&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_6e1a126b97-6ade38f882-315682489
Byron: So you mean it is OK for the Right to have welfare cowboys(check the latest farm bill), oil companies, banks etc. etc. in their ilk. It seems from your viewpoint, it is not OK to raise the minimum salary so ALL,irrespective of their political leanings, have to pitch in the welfare state caused by the Walmarts. the Big Macs and the kind in order to raise their profits. You are fine in lining their pockets with our money without having any stake in them.
Are you fine with that kind of welfare state because 18% of Walmart food sales come from the SNAP program?
First and foremost, Bundy is a criminal who has lost his cases in the courts and owe us $1 million for fodder. If the land had been under the Nevada State, then the amount would have gone to $ 6 to 7 Million. In my opinion BLM could have done it quietly by putting a lien on his property which includes his cattle rather than brandishing guns and raiding the place. As a result, it gave Obama haters the fodder, no pun intended, to show how dangerous the lot can be,especially when they have the megaphones of talk radio and Fox News behind them.
One other pathetic thing one of these gangsters said that they had planned to put women in the firing line in order for the whole world to see in case BLM started firing. Now we know how many have the same mentality, both the white and black burqua wearing people.
Nick,
Just guessing at what Paul saw, (no Catholic reference, I assure you), but it was probably an eighty-five minute loop of the, “head them off at the pass” scene from Blazing Saddles.
No. Ipse dixit is not the same as deciding to do a procedure or not.
GENERAL ELECTRIC CO. v. JOINER (96-188)
78 F.3d 524, reversed and remanded.
ipse dixit (ip-sah-dicks-it) v. Latin for “he himself said it,” meaning the only proof we have of the fact is that this person said it.
Ipse dixit is defined in Black’s Law Dictionary (8th ed. 2004) as, “Something asserted but not proved.”
http://www.natcom.org/CommCurrentsArticle.aspx?id=993
Paul, What flick did you go see?
Saw Rio 2, which was cute and had some funny scenes. Lunch was good but then the significant other HAD to go shopping.
Paul,
“btw, Chuck has changed his official handle to Chuck Stanley, for those who have not been keeping up.”
Yeah, your right, I don’t see him referring to himself as “Chucky” at all!
oliveoyl – I am of the firm opinion that Chuck can defend himself.