And Justice For Some

Standing Rock protesters confront bulldozers
clearing land for the Dakota Access Pipeline

This morning University of North Dakota faculty member and journalist Mark Trahant and Native American activist Winona LaDuke were interviewed on The Brian Lehrer Show.

They shared updates from the front lines of the ongoing efforts to block the Dakota Access Pipeline from infringing on Native American sovereignty and land - and threatening their fresh water supply.

Something Flint, Michigan residents know a little about.

Despite efforts by the federal government, police and private interests to quash this protest, it's only growing.

This morning dozens of people were on hand inside Grand Central Terminal's cavernous main hall to chant and voice their support for the Standing Rock Sioux's quest to protect their water supply; adding to the already significant social media coverage.

In response to reports that law enforcement officials were trying to track individual protesters on Facebook, more than a million people across the globe have used Facebook's Check-In feature to falsely claim to be at the protest site in North Dakota to confuse online surveillance efforts.

The crackdown by authorities against unarmed people in North Dakota is a far cry from how police and federal agents responded to the heavily-armed militants who occupied the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in a remote area of Oregon last January.  

Ammon Bundy & the six co-defendants
who were acquitted in federal court

As you may have heard just last Thursday a  jury in federal court acquitted anti-government zealot brothers Ammon and Ryan Bundy and five co-defendants of various charges related to their 41-day occupation.

One day later on Friday, about 1,260 miles away near the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation in North Dakota, heavily armed police in riot gear arrested at least 142 unarmed protesters demanding a halt to construction of a section of the Dakota Access Oil Pipeline.

The $3.8 billion pipeline is slated to carry crude oil from North Dakota to southern Illinois, and a stretch of the pipeline will pass near a dam directly underneath a section of the Missouri River just half a mile upstream from the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation.

An accident or damage to that section of the pipeline could potentially threaten the fresh water supply of not just the Sioux, but to farms and other families all along the Missouri in that part of the state.

Read through Alexander Sammon's brief timeline of the Standing Rock Sioux's efforts to block the pipeline; posted on MotherJones.com back on September 9th.

The Sioux Tribal Chairman in conjunction with the Tribal Historic Preservation Office, followed established procedure in their efforts to demand that the US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) conduct an investigation to determine the archaeological significance of the section of Sioux land in question - land which the tribe considers sacred.

But repeated written requests were ignored and the USACE basically fast-tracked the permitting process for construction of the pipeline to proceed with virtually no significant environmental impact study - as Sammon reported "Permit 12" covers some 200 different sites covering four states over which the pipeline will pass.

A dog handler confronts protectors
on the weekend of Sept. 3rd

The efforts to block construction of the pipeline that began last summer eventually drew hundreds of members of indigenous tribes from all over the world, as well as thousands of people outraged over the federal government colluding with a private energy company in what some called the largest organized Native American protest in U.S. history.

They began calling themselves "protectors" instead of protestors in light of the fact that they were there to protect the drinking water supply.

But the peaceful opposition reached a violent head on the weekend of September 3rd when Dakota Access, LLC, the company building the pipeline, brought in private security contractors to protect bulldozers clearing land.

Cameras captured inexperienced handlers releasing attack dogs directly into crowds of unarmed people; a number of protectors were bitten, including a child.


The private security personnel also used mace on protesters who were upset over the bulldozers having plowed up swaths of what tribal members claim is a Sioux burial ground.

That scene was repeated last week when large numbers of police in body armor and helmets holding shields wielding long batons, supported by police in armored vehicles, helicopters and ATV's began trying to clear Native Americans from a large campground area; some of whom were on horseback.

Over the course of the Standing Rock protests over 400 people have been arrested.

Hundreds of unarmed indigenous people
engaged in non-violent opposition

Now if you compare the protests by the unarmed members of the Standing Rock Sioux and their indigenous brethren trying to block an oil pipeline from infringing on a natural water supply with Ammon Bundy's group of heavily armed militia members occupation of a federal wildlife refuge facility, there are some similarities.

Both groups were seeking rulings from the federal government related to the oversight of land.


The Sioux initially followed established legal procedure in their written response to the Corps of Engineers and requests for an independent environmental impact study and an investigation to determine if sections of land slated for pipeline construction were burial grounds.

Bundy and his heavily-armed posse of sovereign citizen militia members (most of whom don't even live in the remote Oregon community they occupied) took over a federal wildlife refuge based on a separate court case that had nothing to do with them, their own anti-government grievances and obscure interpretations of law and federal jurisdiction.

But the way in which law enforcement officials responded to the protests by both groups is a troubling example of the inherent bias within the the U.S. justice system based on race and ethnicity.

Ammon Bundy addresses the press during the
Oregon occupation 

Ammon Bundy, a hero of the sovereign citizen movement, has a history of violent confrontation with the federal government stretching back to his father's anti-government confrontations.

Nevada Rancher Cliven Bundy's years of refusal to pay the government grazing fees for the large numbers of his cattle that he kept on federally owned land culminated in a standoff in April, 2014 that garnered national media attention.

In a move that reinforces the old adage "like father like son", on January 2, 2016 after speaking at a rally held in a Safeway parking lot in Burns, Oregon in support of Dwight and Steven Hammond, two men convicted and jailed for setting fire to federal land, Ammon Bundy and a group of armed militants drove to the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge and occupied a collection of buildings.

Their goal was to try to force the federal government to release the Hammonds from jail and also turn over the 187,757 acres of the wildlife refuge established by President Teddy Roosevelt in 1908 to private citizens for "logging and recreational activities".

By the way the Hammonds had accepted their federal sentences for arson and voluntarily showed up to serve their time in jail - they also told the Bundys they didn't want their militia using their court case to justify the illegal occupation of the Malheur Refuge, but that didn't deter the Bundys.

One of Bundy's armed followers during the 
January occupation in Oregon

Their standoff generated global media attention and lasted for 41 days until Bundy and his brother were stopped by Oregon State Police while driving to speak at a local senior center and taken into custody.

But not before one of their followers, Robert "LaVoy" Finicum was shot and killed by police while reaching for a pistol after trying to flee the police stop.




So again, you compare the Bundy's occupation with the peaceful protests by the Sioux and the thousands of followers who've traveled to North Dakota to join them.

One group was heavily armed, the other brandish only signs in a show of nonviolence resistance.

Not only did Bundy's followers openly brandish their weapons in a manner that could be interpreted as threatening and hostile, they actually invited more people to bring their weapons and travel there to join them in an illegal occupation of a federal wildlife facility.

Bundy and his armed posse not only occupied federal property with demands that it be turned over to private citizens, they openly used language suggesting they were prepared for some kind of apocalyptic shoot-out with federal agents and also called for other armed individuals from around the country to bring weapons to the site and join the armed siege.

What did law enforcement do to move Bundy off the wildlife refuge?

Nothing.

Native American activist Winona LaDuke

They never stormed the buildings, they even let Bundy and some of his followers come and go as they pleased for much of the siege.

Meanwhile in North Dakota, unarmed protesters (including old women and children) have been maced, had attack dogs set on them, been beaten with batons, shot at with bean bag guns and been subjected to deafening noise designed to disperse crowds.


Over 400 have been arrested and jailed - some of them held in cages in a parking lot.

As Winona LaDuke said this morning during her interview, the efforts to protect the fresh water supply and prevent a large company from laying a crude oil pipeline over land granted to the Standing Rock Sioux by federal treaty isn't over.

Bundy and his armed followers have been acquitted of all charges, reinforcing the widely-held belief that the way law enforcement deals with Americans who occupy land depends less on whether they're armed and acting legally, or unarmed and acting peacefully - and more on their race and ethnicity.

In America some get justice, some get the business end of the stick.

The Court of Chris Christie: Day Two At the RNC

Christie plays prosecutor & judge Tuesday night 

I know it's traditional to come up with clever creative ways to energize enthusiastic crowds at political conventions, but it was pretty remarkable to see New Jersey Governor Chris Christie conduct a "mock trial" of Hillary Clinton at last night's RNC event in Cleveland.

As the New York Times reported earlier today, Christie's claims were rife with wild exaggerations, factual inaccuracies and plain old falsehoods.

Was it meant to be somewhat tongue-in-cheek? Sure.

But there was something disturbingly misogynistic about the whole episode that served to reinforce the image of the Republican party as hostile to women in general; particularly when you couple that with nationwide Republican legislative pushes for oppressively restrictive anti-abortion measures and their unprecedented smear campaign against groups like Planned Parenthood that provide critical healthcare services to millions of women.

Recently-concluded lengthy investigations by multiple Congressional committees and the F.B.I. determined that no crimes, intentional or otherwise, were committed because of Clinton's decision to use a private email server.

Yet Christie encouraged the hostile crowd to repeatedly chant "Guilty!" - as if by the mere expression of their hostility towards Clinton they had uncovered some kind of evidence that Congressional staff and federal investigators had somehow missed.

But on another level, it also seemed to not so subtly tap into the undercurrent of irrational anti-government rancor that flows through the Republican party like toxic sludge.

Anti-government zealot Cliven Bundy

The fringe wingnuts who align themselves with the sovereign citizens movement, "patriot" organizations, or groups associated with guys like rancher Cliven Bundy and his son Ammon Bundy who occupy federal lands in defiance of government authority, are drawn to the disturbing "Lock her up!" chants that echoed through the convention hall last night.

Was Christie was intentionally using his "mock trial" to try to tap into the mindset of groups who want to take the law into their own hands, establish their own shadow courts and operate outside the legal system?

Individuals using the cloak of anti-government fervor can come with horrific consequences as in the case of sovereign citizen sympathizer Ryon Lenelle Travis of Detroit.

Christie may have once been a federal prosecutor, but he sunk to a new career low with his episode last night in Cleveland; it's remarkable to see someone who once had such promise as a moderate conservative now reduced to schilling for the Republican party to whip up hostility, fear and anger and cultivate a dangerous mob mindset.

Fear-meister Rudy Giuliani handed the baton to Christie and he ran with it.

Frankly Christie has got some real cojones standing up and putting anyone on "trial" considering that Federal Judge Susan Wigenton recently ruled that Bridgegate trials will be staring this fall and he's already put New Jersey tax payers on the hook for more than $10 million in legal fees related to his role in the scandal - fees paid to a law firm with whom the Governor has deep personal ties.

The hypocrisy of Christie criticizing Hillary Clinton for using a private email server as Secretary of State is funny considering the flagrantly deceptive efforts he and his lawyers went through to hide the cell phone he was using as governor when the Bridgegate scandal was unfolding.

It's hard to decide which speaker on the stage of day two of the RNC convention seemed more detached from reality last night, Dr. Ben Carson telling the crowd that Hillary Clinton is an admirer of Satan, or the court of Chris Christie?

The jury is still out on that one.

"Capt O" Goes AWOL - Oregon Standoff Gets Sketchier

Sign posted outside of a Burns, Oregon home

Okay people, it's been a really long day at work and I was going to give the blog a rest tonight and chill but I saw this story about some outright buffoonery taking place at Ammon Bundy's Oregon standoff and I had to share.

According to an article written by Travis Gettys that was posted on Rawstory.com earlier today, Arizona militia member Joe O' Shaugnessy got into a bit of a spat with some members of the standoff over the wisdom of having women and children present at a compound filled with heavily-armed men itching to get into a shoot-out.

Now it's possible the dispute arose over the announcement on Tuesday that federal agents on the scene were planning to cut off the electricity to the compound as a means to expose the people holed up inside to the reality of winter temperatures in order to encourage them to voluntarily pack up their guns and get out - which as the photo of the sign pictured above shows is exactly what locals are hoping will happen.

According to Gettys' article, O'Shaugnessy (affectionately known to his fellow militia members as Capt. O) left the compound on Wednesday and holed up in the comfort of a nearby motel where he and other members of the standoff have apparently been staying.

I guess they forgot to bring enough cots for everyone?

Muslim-hater Jon Ritzheimer in happier times

So Jon Ritzheimer (pictured left) see last night's blog for details on this gun-toting Muslim-hater, goes to the motel and discovers that "Capt. O" was holed up in the midst of a drinking binge.

Not only, that, he'd also taken with him some cash that he'd raised online from donations that were intended to support the standoff.

This betrayal elicited tears from some other militia members at the Oregon standoff including Cai Irvin; who posted a tearful confession on his Facebook page before quickly taking it down.

Now I may disagree with what these people are doing out there.

But I find it pretty low rent that someone would use this cause to solicit donations from hard working militia members, ranchers and other assorted anti-government folk and use it to pick up some booze from a liquor store, rent a comfy motel room and treat themselves to a bender.

Now in all defense to Capt. O, he may have kept his receipts from the liquor store with the intent of itemizing them and then later compensating the Bundy Standoff fund for his booze-fest expenses.

But I doubt it.

At this point the Oregon standoff is really going down the tubes fast.

Donald Trump supporter Jerry DeLemus

Today on ThinkProgress.org, Alan Pyke reported that the co-chair of the New Hampshire chapter of Donald Trump's Veterans for Trump organization, Jerry DeLemus, has traveled to Burns, Oregon to join Ammon Bundy's increasingly-hopeless cause.

DeLemus (pictured left) is also a veteran of the 2014 Cliven Bundy standoff, so his experience with armed groups threatening federal agents over obscure points of law may prove to be a plus in Burns.

Now in all seriousness, this is America and these guys have a right to freedom of expression and to file grievances against the U.S. government as well.

But dragging a bunch of heavily-armed people (including women and children) out to a remote federal building on a wildlife refuge in the dead of winter is simply delusional.

I believe their decision to do so doesn't make them bad people, but it does reflect long and repeated exposure to distorted views of reality from living an insular life amongst other right wing extremists who've chosen to be indoctrinated within the echo chamber of right wing media that manipulates their minds until all they see is fear, doom and terror.

These folks huddled out there in the middle of a remote Oregon wildlife refuge are, in essence, a cult.

Like the Branch Davidians in Waco, Texas they've retreated from normal society, follow the extremist beliefs of a charismatic leader (Ammon Bundy) who insists God has instructed him to "lead" people to this isolated location where like-minded people see their purpose as "making a stand" to bring about a violent apocalyptic ending that they themselves have prophesied.

All the blustery quasi patriotic rhetoric about being trampled upon by the federal government is fine and dandy, but make no mistake, by definition this is a cult folks.

Only this time the federal government isn't playing their game, and for many of them, like Capt. O, and the other part-time members of the standoff who've chosen to shelter in the comfort of a motel at night and eat in restaurants, the spell has worn off.

Perhaps Capt O is the smart one. At least he opened his eyes and realized the absurdity of a large group of heavily armed people with women and children huddled in some cold buildings in the middle of nowhere.

As a Rolling Stone article published on Tuesday by Tim Dickinson points out, they're unprepared, under-supplied and undermanned - and whatever message they hoped to convey to the world is being obscured by the absurdity of their presence in Burns, Oregon.

The idea that anyone would want to intentionally provoke a deadly confrontation like Ruby Ridge or Waco in order to make a point about disagreements with the federal government, or based on obscure interpretations of the Constitution, is simply absurd to the vast majority of the American people.

And at some point someone with influence in that movement has to see that the standoff is starting to become a joke, with social media branding them "YeeHawdists", "Y'all Qaeda" or "Vanilla ISIS".

Enough is enough.

These people need to pack it up before tensions get any higher and someone gets desperate, or goes rogue and people get hurt; or worse.

The novelty of the Oregon standoff has run its course and the people left there seem more like a bad comedian who doesn't know it's time to leave the stage because people are laughing at him, not with him; and his act simply sucks.

The Angry American

Burns, Oregon protester John Ritzheimer

"In my mind, he should pack his bags and come home,"

That's Arizona rancher Clay Bundy as quoted in a New York Times article talking about his cousin Ammon Bundy; the leader of the five-day old standoff taking place on a remote federal wildlife refuge outside Burns, Oregon.

Clay Bundy pretty much sums up the feelings of the vast majority of the residents of Harney County, who don't want Ammon Bundy and his heavily-armed posse of angry anti-government followers using their small rural community as an excuse to espouse their extremist agenda.

Or worse, use the imprisonment of two Oregon ranchers convicted of setting fire to federal lands as some kind of excuse to spark a violent confrontation with police and federal agents to incite even further senseless anti-government stand-offs like the one they're already in.

Among the 100 or so armed "patriots" currently holed up in an isolated collection of federal buildings is John Ritzheimer (pictured above).

Ritzheimer made headlines last May when he organized a group of heavily-armed protesters who held an anti-Muslim rally outside of a mosque in Phoenix, Arizona. He also became the subject of an FBI manhunt back in November after posting anti-Muslim hate videos online; including one in which he used an assault rifle to shoot a copy of the Koran.

As an Aljazeera article (see link above) noted, last fall as news about his virulently anti-Muslim video postings spread, Ritzheimer took offense at outraged Facebook users who called him a "Nazi" - which of course conflicts with the black t-shirt he's wearing in the photo above with the SS logo surrounded by the words "Support your local white boy".

As this self-created "siege" moves into its sixth day, a lot of mainstream and social media are increasingly focusing their attention on the non-confrontational hands-off approach of law enforcement in response to heavily-armed individuals facing off with members of local police and federal agents.

It's understandable that federal agents want to avoid creating a violent standoff like Ruby Ridge or Waco, but the longer it goes on, the more it stands in stark contrast to the kind rapid, full-bore crack downs of police against African-American protesters in places like Ferguson, Missouri.

The contrast in response is shedding light on the differences in policing in America based on race.

Missouri National Guard members in Ferguson

White "patriots" in Burns, Oregon man watchtowers, block roads into the compound and openly boast about their willingness to engage in armed conflict with federal agents and freely come and go as they please.

The response to mostly African-American protesters in Ferguson, Missouri in August, 2014 in the wake of the police killing of unarmed teenager Michael Brown was much different.


Almost immediately, heavily militarized police using heavy-handed tactics that included rubber bullets, tear gas and armed vehicles were deployed to public streets to confront large groups of unarmed protesters.

The Missouri Governor called out the National Guard (pictured above).

As essayist and blogger Chauncey DeVega observed on his Indomitable blog yesterday:

"Ultimately, the recent events in Oregon are one more reminder of how white privilege is an existential state of hypocrisy. African-American protesters in Ferguson were met with lethal rounds from police, faced down by snipers, were bludgeoned with nightsticks, shot with rubber and wooden bullets, spied upon by drones, and shown the full range of power that is capable of being summoned by America’s hyper-militarized police forces. The protesters in Ferguson were also confronted by the National Guard—a step that the governor of Oregon has so far not taken in order to neutralize the estimated 150 armed white men who are making terrorist threats and engaging in armed insurrection in his state." 

Like many people, I've read some of the abstract quotes from the Oregon protesters about their desire to "restore freedom" and take back power and land from the federal government.

But I'm genuinely confused about what they're so enraged about.

Ammon Bundy flanked by armed militia members

Most of them (including Ammon Bundy) aren't from Harney County. Plus the two ranchers sentenced to jail for arson peacefully surrendered themselves to authorities to be taken back to jail as required.

So what are all these people still doing there?

As DeVega observed in his blog, these protesters seem prepared to die for the Constitution.

Yet they're in violation of Article I of said Constitution which considers armed resistance to the federal government a violation of the same Constitution they so revere.

Selective Constitutional reverence?

It's like the protester's rage against Muslims, the government, authority, gun control etc. blinds them to what the Constitution actually says and means.

As you may have heard, the results of a recent national poll conducted by NBC and Esquire reveal some fascinating insights into the level of anger in this nation as expressed by white and black Americans.

The poll surveyed 3,000 people and found that white Americans are generally a lot more pissed off than others, less optimistic about the future of the nation and much more pessimistic about race relations in the United States.

Now obviously a poll of 3,000 people can't tell you everything about each one of the more than 320 million people living in this country, but based on the sampling it does offer some insight into the kinds of things that might be on the minds of the "patriots" holed up with their weapons in a remote wildlife refuge in Oregon.

Earlier this morning on WNYC, The Brian Lehrer Show devoted an interesting 21-minute segment to the results of the NBC/Esquire poll and what it means to the idea of the American Dream.

It's worth a listen when you have time; just click the link above.

I think the various callers who phoned in to share their insights help to shed some understanding into the kind of anger that's been so visible in this country - especially with some of the Republican presidential candidates over the past year.

It's not just Republican presidential hopefuls either, with the House passing the 62nd piece of legislation to override the Affordable Care Act today, it's pretty clear House GOP and Senate members are rather angry too.

Personally I think the poll results reflect the stress of an economy that's not doing much of anything for average folks of all stripes - history has shown that when times are tight, people look for something or someone to blame.

Those folks holed up in Oregon are obviously fed up and desperate for some way to show it; but I think they'd get a lot more done without the loaded weapons and the camouflage.

Clay Bundy pretty much sums it up; they should all pack their bags and just go home.

Whatever the Hell it is they're so pissed about it's really not worth dying over.