WHITE ISIS RUNS INTO A FEW PROBLEMS

Six members of the militia occupying the Malheur National Refuge, including Ammon Bundy, were taken into custody Tuesday night following a shooting nearby, according to the FBI.

The Harney County District Hospital in Burns, Oregon is on lockdown, and a section of the highway is also closed. The altercation occurred at about 4:25 PM local time, when the militia was on its way to a meeting in John Day, a neighboring town.

The FBI released a statement confirming that one militant died in a shootout. Another militant sustained “non life-threatening” injuries and was taken to the hospital.

Bundy and his militia have been occupying the federal property since the beginning of January, and law enforcement has been hesitant to remove them. But conflicts with local residents have escalated recently; members of the occupation have torn down their fences and reportedly vandalized other property in the town. Locals have grown angrier at the lack of action to remove the militia.

Two other militia members were arrested last week when they stole federal vehicles to drive to Safeway. Meanwhile, the militia has been trying to convene their own justice system to attempt to arrest local officials.

There are reportedly still members of the militia at the refuge and it’s unclear what impact tonight’s events will have on the ongoing occupation.

[cross-posted from thinkprogress]

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Y’ALL QAEDA SAYS THEY WILL ARREST THOSE WHO HUMILIATE THEM

Y’all Qaeda, white angry militants who have taken over an Oregon wildlife refuge appear to be moving toward “indicting” county officials who they say mocked them by threatening to impose a $70,000-a-day bill for their ongoing occupation.

Ammon Bundy said a bogus “grand jury” set up by the militants had served notices of intent Wednesday to various Harney County officials who had refused to support their armed takeover of the Malheur National Wildlife Preserve.

The militant leader suggested that Judge Steven Grasty, the chief elected county official, should be arrested for treason because he made fun of the out-of-state militia members who are trying to overthrow the county government and demanding that federal lands be turned over to their control.

“It appears that he must be trying to hide something because he’s getting very belligerent towards the Committee of Safety and, of course, towards us,” Bundy said.

The militant leader complained that Grasty would not allow the Committee of Safety, which is made up of six local residents selected by Bundy himself as a shadow government, to hold a meeting Friday evening on county property.

“He’s completely biased, he’s also threatened the Committee of Safety, he’s intimidated them, he’s tried to belittle them and really acting strange,” Bundy said, with a copy of the U.S. Constitution conspicuously poking out of his shirt pocket.

Chris Briels, the county’s volunteer fire chief, resigned his unpaid post after Grasty asked him to step down from the unelected Committee of Safety.

“I’ve been told that we don’t know what we’re doing,” Briels said Wednesday, with Bundy standing beside him. “I’ve been told that my life is in danger. I’ve been told all kinds of things. I will not be told what to do. I have my own mind, and I will use my own mind, not somebody else’s.”

Grasty has been strongly critical of the militants — who he calls “armed thugs” — and their plot to take over the county government, even as he complains about the same federal land use issues that drew the outsiders to Harney County.

The sheriff of neighboring Grant County claims he was unwittingly invited to a lunch meeting Wednesday with some of the militants — who asked him to travel to Harney County and join their siege.

Grant County Sheriff Glenn Palmer, who is admired among the right-wing Oath Keepers gun group, said he would not undermine the authority of Harney County Sheriff David Ward — but he also would not comply with his neighbor’s lone request.

“About the only thing he really told me is I’m welcome to come down there if I would shame and humiliate them into giving up, and I said, ‘No, I won’t do that,’” Palmer said. “I’m not in the business of denouncing or shaming or humiliating anybody.”

Palmer said he would not join the militants in Harney County, but he urged the federal government to comply with the armed outsiders’ demands.

“I believe the government is going to have to concede to something,” Palmer said. “I don’t think these guys are going to give up without knowing that they’ve done something that benefits the people of our country or our region.”

Grasty’s counterpart, Grant County Court Judge Scott Myers, said the Harney County judge had warned him that militants might be trying to take over the government in that county, as well.

A self-appointed judge who will oversee the bogus legal proceedings against Harney County officials said the militants would likely repeat their tactics in other states — and he admitted the group’s goal was to overthrow the elected government and replace it with one they believe was more “constitutional.”

“Ammon Bundy is not leaving until we have a lawful county government and the BLM and FBI are completely out of here,” said Bruce Doucette, who calls himself a “United States at Superior Court Judge.”

Doucette said he will oversee a “grand jury” made up of 25 community members who will meet in secret, but he said the results of their extralegal proceedings will be publicly released.

“Common law grand juries,” which are based on nonsensical “sovereign citizen” legal theories, typically indict public officials on only one charge: treason — for which the penalty is death.

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BUNDY TO BE BILLED FOR OCCUPATION OF FEDERAL LAND

Although the armed occupiers of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge facility may seem to have done little more than camp out with guns and demand snacks, their continuing occupation is costing taxpayers dearly.

Local and federal government facilities have had to be closed, keeping public employees unable to complete their work. Harney County, which houses the preserve, schools were closed last week, adding teachers to the list of employees on paid leave and preventing students from learning. Police and security has been brought in to protect the townspeople from the armed militiamen — who have threatened law enforcement and other county officials. The occupied reserve, a valuable tourist attraction for the area, is closed to re-creators. All of those costs and losses add up.


Cost to the County: $70,000 Per Day

Harney County Judge Steve Grasty told outraged community members that he’d send the Bundys a bill for what they’d cost the county — which he estimates to be “$60,000 to $70,000 a day” for the closed schools and government offices and the drastic ramp-up in security.

Despite Judge Grasty’s threats, he doesn’t seem optimistic about actually recouping their losses. He reiterated the threat to the New York Daily News, but clarified that he doesn’t expect Mr. Bundy to pony up: “Will he pay it? No.”

These estimates for security don’t include the additional cost of the FBI presence and support, just the cost to the rural community around the reserve — which is bearing the brunt of the economic fallout.


Cost to the Federal Taxpayer: $23,400 Per Day

Along with the occupied Malheur National Wildlife Refuge facility, three buildings maintained by the Bureau of Land Management and Forest Service have also shut down because of the security threat to employees. The Bureau of Land Management’s district office in Burns, Oregon alone employs nearly 120 employees — most of who are now on paid administrative leave. The weekly cost of those workers — who now are unable to work — is about $117,000 per week, or $23,400 per day.

Not included in this cost are the 50 additional employees at at the refuge center or the Forest Service’s Emigrant Creek Ranger District office. Many of these workers are also on paid leave, which means the actual cost may be even greater.


Cost in Lost Tourism: $40,000 Per Day

The economic impact of birders, hunters, anglers, and other outdoor recreationalists is no joke. Nationally, these groups contribute some $140 billion and hundreds of thousands of jobs to the economy each year – a strong economic force for many small businesses, towns, and counties like Harney.

The Malheur Wildlife Refuge is no exception. It attracts 119,000 recreational visitors a year, who come to see its 190 thousand acres of prime wildlife habitat, housing 320 species of birds, 58 mammals and 10 species of native fish. These visitors spend around $15 million each year, according to a 2013 report from the US Fish and Wildlife Service.

$15 million a year averages down to over $40,000 a day, meaning Harney County has lost, as an estimate, a staggering $360,000 in recreation dollars since the armed takeover began.


Total Cost: $133,400 Per Day

$70,000 in security costs and closed schools. $23,400 in federal salaries. $40,000 a day lost in recreation dollars. The cost of the nine-day takeover adds up to roughly $1,200,600. Each additional day adds $133,400 to the total, and for the beleaguered Harney county, there’s no end in sight.

[h/t thinkprogess]

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Roger West

CLOWNSTICK OFFICIAL CAMPS OUT WITH WHITE ISIS

The co-chairman of Fuckface Von Clownstick[ Donald Trump’s} New Hampshire “Veterans for Trump” group has arrived in Burns, Oregon, to assist the small cadre of armed men who are seeking to provoke a standoff with federal officials there.

That not-quite-standoff began over the weekend when a handful of men led by Ammon Bundy decided to turn a much larger peaceful protest over a decision to send two ranchers back to jail for arson into an armed struggle. The group’s numbers are small – especially compared to the 300 who reportedly joined the peaceful protest of the re-sentencing – but they have now been reinforced by Jerry DeLemus, a former United States Marine living on the opposite side of the country.

Clownstick himself has said little about the situation in Oregon, following the pattern of most of the GOP primary candidates. But on Tuesday he seemed to tell The Hill it was time for the Bundy crew to pack it in and go home. “You have to maintain law and order, no matter what,” he said.

It is at least the second time DeLemus has ridden to the physical aid of a Bundy. When Ammon’s father Cliven had his cattle impounded by the Bureau of Land Management in 2014 over more than $1 million in unpaid fines and fees for his use of public lands, DeLemus and his son drove 41 hours in three days to come help.

The impromptu militia DeLemus helped lead in Bunkerville, NV, eventually pushed the agency to return Bundy’s cattle under threat of violence. “If they made one wrong move, every single BLM agent in that camp would’ve died,” another leader of the group named Ryan Payne bragged to the Missoula Independent later. “We had counter-sniper positions on their sniper positions. We had at least one guy – sometimes two guys – per BLM agent in there.”

DeLemus’ job in Bunkerville was “chief of security,” according to RawStory, which reports he was personally responsible for dismissing the members of the Bundy brigade who later went on to kill two police in Las Vegas before being killed themselves by other officers. He says he’s come to Oregon to help ensure the younger Bundys and their adherents find a peaceful resolution and leave the refuge safely.

In a Facebook post explaining his decision, he also warned that a military psychological operation was taking place. “We must be level headed and remember there is a psyops war happening as well and all who were at Bunkerville know well what I’m talking about,” DeLemus wrote.

When a GQ reporter asked the Granite State man in 2014 how he thought the Bunkerville standoff might end, he said there was a “good chance” that federal agents would return and kill every member of Bundy’s brigade, promising his crew would shoot back if it came to it. “And I’ll tell you what, they’ll have a bloody nose, and I’ll tell you what: the American people will rise up,” he said. “Go ahead.”

DeLemus told reporters from the conspiracy theory-driven Next News Network at the time that “there’s great risk we may not come home” from Bunkerville. And a year earlier in New Hampshire, he told a crowd of Tea Party types that “We are in a similar position our Founding Fathers found themselves in and their decision to stand was equally difficult.”

He also believes President Obama is secretly Muslim, according to a June 2014 Facebook post about the return of U.S. Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl after five years as a captive of the Taliban. (The opening sequence of the podcast Serial’s current run of episodes on Bergdahl features Trump’s voice saying, “Y’know in the old days deserters were shot,” to raucous applause.) “You are a race baiter and a sure sign of how little time America has left,” he wrote to the president in another post.

[h/t thinkprogress]

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STAFF WRITER

WHITE ISIS TYRANT RYAN BUNDY, NOT THE SHARPEST TOOL IN THE SHED

WHITE ISIS TYRANT RYAN BUNDY

White ISIS, Y’all Qaeada, the “special” patriots who have taken over an Oregon nature preserve have bristled at suggestions that their armed demonstration is an act of domestic terror — but they apparently don’t understand the legal definition of the term.

One of the militants, Ryan Bundy, spoke Tuesday to blogger Shepard Ambellas of Intellihub about the ongoing occupation of the Malheur National Nature Preserve by self-described militia members.

Bundy, the son of scofflaw Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy, complained that the mainstream media had portrayed the militants and his family — who took part in an armed confrontation with federal agents over their unpaid grazing fees on public lands — as terrorists.

“They labeled us terrorists several years ago, so that’s not new,” Bundy said. “You got to look at the definition of terror.”

Bundy asked the blogger to define terror, and Ambellas said he guessed it meant “something that scares someone.”

“Would you say that terror is extreme fear?” Bundy asked.

“I would say the word has a heightened sense of fear,” Ambellas said.

“All right, so extra fear,” Bundy said. “All right, so a terrorist is one that uses extreme fear to control a situation, to control a political situation or any particular situation — so that would define terrorism.”

Bundy, who was arrested last year following a courthouse brawl in Nevada, said terrorists used bombs and bomb threats to create “extreme terror to try to control or gain position or something,” citing the Boston Marathon bombing as an example.

“Terrorism is extreme fear to control the situation,” he said.

The militants have so far not been charged with any crimes, but the United States Code does include a legal definition of terrorism that is much more specific than the one outlined by Bundy and his interviewer.

The U.S. Code defines domestic terrorism as “activities that … appear to be intended … to influence the policy of a government by intimidation or coercion and … occur primarily within the territorial jurisdiction of the United States.”

The sheriff of Harney County, where the nature preserve is located, said the militants had come from out of state to protest the sentencing of ranchers Dwight and Stephen Hammond on arson charges but then took over the government building in hopes of taking over the county government and sparking a nationwide revolution.

Sheriff David Ward said the FBI, which is overseeing the situation, has assured him the militants will face charges.

The sheriff didn’t specify which charges those might be, but the U.S. Code outlines a charge for seditious conspiracy whose elements strongly resemble the plot to take over and occupy the nature preserve.

“If two or more persons in any State or Territory, or in any place subject to the jurisdiction of the United States, conspire to overthrow, put down, or to destroy by force the Government of the United States, or to levy war against them, or to oppose by force the authority thereof, or by force to prevent, hinder, or delay the execution of any law of the United States, or by force to seize, take, or possess any property of the United States contrary to the authority thereof, they shall each be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than twenty years, or both,” the statute reads.

Bundy and his group, which calls itself Citizens for Constitutional Freedom, told reporters they want the Hammonds to be released from custody and they want the federal government to hand over land near their ranch to local control.

“The best possible outcome is that the ranchers that have been kicked out of the area … will come back and reclaim their land, and the wildlife refuge will be shut down forever and the federal government will relinquish such control,” Ryan Bundy said in another interview. “What we’re doing is not rebellious. What we’re doing is in accordance with the Constitution, which is the supreme law of the land.”

Bundy told Intellihub that Hammond was a victim of government terrorism because the rancher feared that federal authorities would “put a bullet in (his) head.”

“He reported to prison not out of duty, not out of respect for the government, not out of guilt for crime that they say he committed — it was simply out of fear of the oppressive government,” Bundy said.

“He was in fear of being shot in the head — he was fearful for his life, his family’s life,” Bundy said. “He was fearful of others around him. So who has been using those tactics against him? The government has. So who are the terrorists?”

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