What you need to know about the Oregon standoff

[Crackpot]

story

What You Need To Know About The Oregon Militia Standoff

GRAPHIC January 4, 2016
VOL 52 ISSUE 00

During a rally in Oregon for two ranchers convicted of arson, a group of anti-government protesters initiated the armed occupation of a federal building at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge. Here is everything you need to know about the militia standoff:

Where is the standoff taking place?

The headquarters of Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, future capital of the Free Republic Of America.

How did this start?

Protests began after local ranchers Dwight and Steven Hammond were ordered to return to prison because their time already served for committing arson did not meet minimum-sentencing laws, which, to be fair, often do more harm than good and are certainly worthy of reevaluation.

Who are the ranchers protesting against?

Gub’ment.

Why did the ranchers take over the federal wildlife building?

You big-city folk wouldn’t understand.


How many people are involved in the standoff?

An estimated 150 militia members who would otherwise be armed and spouting anti-government rhetoric somewhere else.

What are the protesters’ demands?

$5 million in cash and safe passage to 1874.

Is there legitimacy to their complaints?

Compared to the plight of the Oregon’s nearly extinct short-tailed albatross? Absolutely not.

Who is Ammon Bundy?

An American patriot who is currently living inside a government wildlife building in the middle of Oregon to defend ranchers who burned down 130 acres of federal land.

Are the protesters violent?

They have vowed to only seek a peaceful overthrow of the entire U.S. federal government.

How long are they planning to stay?

As long as their supply of whiskey and bison chili lasts.

What is the militia ultimately hoping to achieve?

Garner enough attention over next few weeks to be brought onstage during rally for a low-polling GOP candidate.

Is the protest going to work?

Nope.

[Gob]

A group of around a dozen armed men have taken over a remote federal building on a wildlife reserve in Oregon as part of a protest against government "tyranny", demanding that the land be handed over to local ranchers.

Despite the fact that a few of the actors have carried out similar actions over land use before, they appear not to have planned this stand-off in the snowy, desolate area very well.

The group have vowed to stay in the building "as long as it takes" and have said they are not afraid to kill or be killed if law enforcement tries to remove them.

The group aren't exactly defending their cause from ridicule. It has emerged that before the group even got to the site, one of their number put out a call on Facebook for "supplies and snacks":

The responses were heartening..

http://i100.independent.co.uk/article/o ... ZJglh9sRjx

[Lord Jim]

I was just about to to start a thread about this with the subject line, "Buncha Morons"...

ETA:

Every successful revolution starts with takeover of closed visitor center with gift shop.

This guy looks like he's probably the mastermind of the operation:



Quick wes, grab your shotgun! Constitution defenders in Oregon need you!

[Econoline]

[wesw]

sorry bud, I m a standard wing nut, those yahoos must be metric wingnuts or somethin'

we don t screw on the same bolts if you catch my drift....

them there bundys is crazy ass land rapers...

I will not be providing snacks....

it seems that the actual issues in Oregon are fairly complicated tho.....

[Lord Jim]

On CNN a little while ago a correspondent who is on the scene there reported something I found surprising...

There is no law enforcement of any type deployed in the area...

No locals, no state, no FBI...Nobody at all to prevent more people from joining this motley crew...

This strikes me as something they might want to re-think ASAP, before people start showing up with truckloads of supplies that could enable them to draw this out...

I certainly don't think the cops should storm the place, but they should set up some kind of perimeter, (even beyond the site of the facility) to prevent anyone else from joining them...

These brainiacs apparently didn't have the sense to even bring candy bars with them; if the authorities just isolated them they'd have to come out fairly soon...

Maybe the idea was to have a very low key response in order to avoid giving them attention, but with all the national media coverage, that boat has sailed...

[wesw]

well at least they went out in the boonies. apparently the nearest town is 30 miles away.

it s very cold out there too.

the revolution will soon be freezing its collective ass off....

[MajGenl.Meade]

I think you're missing the boat, LJ. Ignoring them is about the best possible response. They will go away when they find there's no cable TV, beer, nudie internet and zero shits given. The FBI is involved in negotiations and the same tactic worked before in the same place with the same people (or their inbred progenitors)

[wesw]

meade is funny.

scooter has become reasonable and meade is calling people, that he doesn t even know, inbreds.

good lord, the snow globe has been shaken vigorously , hasn t it?

[Lord Jim]

the same tactic worked before in the same place with the same people

But there wasn't the same level of media attention that time...

Maybe you're right, (and I'm glad to hear that the FBI is at least in touch with them) but if a caravan of pick-trucks loaded with cases of Pabst Blue Ribbon, pork rinds and scooter pies, (and additional armed "patriots") starts approaching the building, it would be nice to have some resources in place to turn them back...

[rubato]

Since no one else mentioned it:

Malheur = Misfortune


Not good feng shui


yrs,
rubato

[Long Run]

This is a bigger story nationally and internationally than here in the state, where we are thawing out from an inch deep ice storm. Any kind of off-normal weather is reason for non-stop coverage for our local media outlets.

fwiw, if you get a chance in the summer, the Malheur wildlife refuge, which is an original Teddy Roosevelt refuge, along with Steens Mountain and the Diamond lava fields makes the drive into the middle of nowhere well worth the trip. Just wait until after the mosquito hatch is over, or you might be down a pint or two by the time you get out of there.



Here's a Childe Hassam of the area:

[Gob]

The shadow of Waco and other botched law enforcement sieges of the 1980s and 1990s is looming large over the standoff in south-eastern Oregon, where federal agents are avoiding anything that smacks of confrontation with the armed anti-government activists who have occupied a remote wildlife refuge since the weekend.

Where once federal law enforcement agencies might have been itching to meet the activists’ defiance head-on, now they are virtually invisible – apparently believing they have much more to lose from triggering violence than they have to gain by waiting the protesters out.

The reason, according to former federal agents and experts on rightwing extremism, is a vivid institutional memory of the bloodshed that marked standoffs with radical rightwingers in Ruby Ridge, Idaho, in 1992 and at Waco, Texas, the following year. Those operations not only led to loss of life on both sides – more than 80 people died in the fire that ended the siege of the Branch Davidian religious compound outside Waco – they also provoked scandal, investigations, congressional hearings, and years of further confrontations with radical groups outraged by the way the federal authorities behaved.

“What we’re seeing is definitely related to lessons learned at Ruby Ridge and Waco and Marion, Utah and other sieges since then,” said Mark Pitcavage, director of the Anti-Defamation League’s Center on Extremism. “From a law enforcement perspective, if you try to use force to resolve the situation, there’s a risk that one or more of the extremists involved may be killed and turn into martyrs. You can end up spawning far more retaliatory acts of violence than whatever harm the initial incident could have caused.”

At least one Waco veteran, an FBI hostage negotiator who has long since retired, has been hired back as a government adviser on the Oregon standoff. Another, the former head of the FBI’s Hostage Rescue Team, Danny Coulson, said it was gratifying to see the bureau take what he called a “laid-back posture”.

“Less is better here,” Coulson said. “Let ’em talk … The commander on the ground should be engaging in very close dialogue with the group’s leader, person to person. Sooner or later, the wives are going to get sick of the sight of their husbands screwing around out there, or they’ll need to go get cigarettes. It will end the right way.”

[Econoline]

Not that there's anything wrong with that....

[dales]

Since no one else mentioned it:


Not good feng shui


yrs,
rubato

Unless the dish is prepared with skill and care, the results are less than satisfactory.

Any good feng shui places in Sta. Cruz?

My ex who was Korean knew a great place in Oakland's Chinatown (I wonder if it is still there?)

Perhaps when I make a Berkeley medicinal run, I will have to swing by.

[kmccune]

Ignore them ,they will lose interest ,people that meet things like this head on reminds me of a 20 car police chase .Given a little time it will end on its own .

[Lord Jim]

People have been delivering them food, and so long as this:



continues to go on, they ain't goin' anywhere. The one single thing that could probably do the most to end this, would be for the press to pack up and go home. As long as this stunt continues to provide Bundy with a national media platform, he will stay.

[Long Run]

The one single thing that could probably do the most to end this, would be for the press to pack up and go home.

They'll soon be another college sit-in protest over the cafeteria ice cream not having sustainable sugar, and the press will be off to the next "news" story.

[wesw]

[Bicycle Bill]

Be interesting to see a long shot of this clip.... because even though they focused up close it still looks like he's talking to a lot of empty chairs.

-"BB"-