Re Bundy & Co's armed insurrection in Oregon: VOX/The Oregon militia standoff, explained

[99th_Monkey]

The Oregon militia standoff, explained
Updated by Jennifer Williams on January 3, 2016

A militia protesting the "tyranny" of the federal government seized the headquarters of a federal wildlife refuge in Oregon on Saturday and, in a video posted to Facebook, called on "patriots" from all over the country to come to the refuge with their guns to join their fight. (see Video at link)

Among the militia's members are Ammon Bundy, whose father Cliven Bundy became a Fox News star in 2014 for his armed standoff in Nevada with the federal government over cattle-grazing rights. On the surface, this is about a father and son from Oregon who were ordered by the court to return to prison to serve additional time for a 2012 arson on federal land. But, as with Cliven Bundy's standoff, the anti-government militiamen who are driving this crisis believe it's about standing up to a tyrannical federal government.

Who are these guys, and what do they want?

The apparent goal of the takeover is ultimately to induce the federal government to turn over government-owned land to local ranchers, loggers, and miners for their use. Here is Ammon Bundy, one of the militia leaders, explaining it in his own words: (see Video at link)

But the men involved in the takeover — including Ammon Bundy, Ammon's brother Ryan, Jon Ritzheimer, Blaine Cooper, and Ryan Payne — are not locals. Rather, they are a small group of individuals who travel around the country attaching themselves to various local fights against the federal government, usually over land rights. Several of them were involved in Cliven Bundy's 2014 standoff.

MUCH MORE info + informative videos HERE: http://www.vox.com/2016/1/3/10703712/oregon-militia-standoff

[Buzz Clik]

1. Did you Jon Ritzheimer's farewell video?

The super patriot sniffling through a video as he goes off to war ... against his country.

[demtenjeep]

2. they view this as their "mulligan" a chance to cause civil war that they wanted with the bundy ranc

our government needs to make sure this doesn't happen again .


Something needs to be done because every time the idiot III% get to do something like this they feel more validated and get more emboldened.

[valerief]

3. They're like the Westboro Baptist Church of militia terrorists. nt

[NV Whino]

4. Here's some interesting info

No. For one thing, it turned out that the Hammonds don't actually want the militia's help — or at least, not anymore.

At first, according to the Oregonian, the Hammonds "accepted the militia's offer of help to avoid prison." But they "changed their minds after being warned by federal prosecutors to stop communicating with the militia" and have now "professed through their attorneys that they had no interest in ignoring the order to report for prison."

Ammon also tried to recruit residents from the surrounding area, reportedly meeting with 10 or so locals, but they all turned him down.

Looks like these guys are on their own.

[99th_Monkey]

6. The Hammonds are trying to not get even more prison time for "inciting an insurrection"

by reversing their story to try to cover their tracks.

They posted an incendiary Facebook a desperate plea for this exact scenario, asking "patriots everywhere"
to descend on Malheur County Oregon to intervene on their behalf.

Classic case of "be careful what you ask for"

[jwirr]

9. On their own without a cause.

[ileus]

5. Don't these people have jobs and families?

[Wellstone ruled]

7. As for the Bundy's

Their annual Water Mellon harvest is done. And the Old Man and his Boys run a few hard scrabble cows on the BLM across the road from their so called Ranch. Between SS and SSDI and Military disability,and foods stamps from Clark County. You get the idea.

[questionseverything]

8. i do not understand the "ordering them back to prison" thing

have they served the original term?and why the re-sentencing?

another question, i have read the fire was to burn a deer stand? to cover poaching? is this how this started?

[starroute]

10. As I understand it, they did set the fire to cover up poaching

Then they claimed they'd set it on their own land to keep out invasive species and it spread to the federal land -- but that was apparently disproven at the trial.

The sentencing question still seems murky, but apparently there's a five-year minimum in the federal code -- enacted after 9/11, I think -- and the judge originally violated it when he sentenced one of them to a few months in prison and the other to one year. Then either he or another judge realized the mistake and told them they'd have to serve more time.

[questionseverything]

11. thank you for providing the background

couple of thoughts

after seeing how this admin handled sieglemans case, i am not very confident with the feds

i am not a fan of mandatory minimums wether it is for drug sentences or arson

2 guys get 5 years each and we taxpayers spend 350 grand to punish them seems unbalanced