SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
NPR is reporting on this tale of direct action:
A self-styled militia in eastern Oregon grabbed national headlines Saturday when they broke into the headquarters of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge. There the armed group remains Sunday, occupying the federal building in protest of what it sees as government overreach on rangelands throughout the western United States.
"We stand in defense," Ammon Bundy, the group's apparent leader and spokesperson, told Oregon Public Broadcasting. "And when the time is right we will begin to defend the people of Harney County, [Ore.,] in using the land and the resources."
Ammon's brother, Ryan, has reportedly used harsher rhetoric, saying members of the militia are willing to kill or be killed.
Their last name may ring a bell. Ammon and Ryan Bundy are sons of rancher Cliven Bundy, who notably took part in an armed standoff with the federal Bureau of Land Management, or BLM, in Nevada in 2014.
Ammon Bundy now is part of a group of 15 to 150 people — depending on which source you believe — who are protesting the arson convictions of two Oregon ranchers, Dwight Hammond Jr. and his son, Steven.
Also at Oregon Live, NYT, and the Associated Press.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by bradley13 on Monday January 04 2016, @08:45PM
You talk about it using the example of climate data, and you're right: all sides have an ax to grind. Essentially no one even tries to present you with the objective truth.
If you read the history of this case, which includes something like 20 years of backstory, the federal government's hands are anything but clean. The people at the center of the story own a ranch that is nearly surrounded by a wildlife refuge. The refuge has grown by taking over neighboring ranches, and the federal bureaucrats are irritated by these people who don't want to sell. So the feds have done all sorts of unpleasant things, to try to drive them into capitulation. Just one example: barricading the roads they use to access their own land, even though the roads exist, and have been used for decades. Another example: prosecuting them for setting wildfires, using terrorism laws. Whatever the law around wildfires (and this is a huge gray zone), prosecuting them as terrorist is idiocy. And "re-sentencing" after someone has served their sentence and been released? In what kind of justice system does that make sense?
I'm not saying that occupying the wildlife refuge headquarters makes any sense - it doesn't. But I totally understand why certain groups of people are totally fed up with the feds. The federal government is a power-hungry monstrousity, and its bureaucrats demand your obeisance. If you're in a position where that doesn't matter, then you don't understand how utterly unjust this can become.
Just another random example: I have an acquaintance who blew off filing his taxes - out of sheer laziness - for ten years. Finally got caught, fair enough. Worked out a payment plan with the IRS, including plenty of penalties, fair enough. But the IRS has him where it wants him. Regularly, two or three times a year, he finds that the IRS has emptied his bank account, even though he hasn't missed a payment. Of course, this causes his mortgage payment to be late, check to bounce, etc.. He complains, they put the money back - but no apology, and certainly no compensation for the very real costs that this incurs. Why do they do it? Because they can, and because no one holds the federal bureaucrats responsible for abusing their power.
If you get on the wrong side of power-loving, panty-waisted federal bureaucrats, they can and will make your life hell. If you haven't witnessed this, you have no idea just how bad it can get. I totally understand how people can say "enough", even if the actions they take may seem a bit strange to people who haven't been in their situation.
Everyone is somebody else's weirdo.