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Today’s gop: why go just far enough when too far is right there?

The Supreme Court cannot be allowed to become the ultimate, unaccountable arbiter of everything.

Nothing worth doing is easy.

It’s not hopeless, and we’re not helpless.

Live so that if you miss a day of work people aren’t hoping you’re dead.

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If you tweet it in all caps, that makes it true!

The republican caucus is covering themselves with something, and it’s not glory.

This isn’t Democrats spending madly. This is government catching up.

A thin legal pretext to veneer over their personal religious and political desires.

I’ve spoken to my cat about this, but it doesn’t seem to do any good.

The arc of history bends toward the same old fuckery.

Everyone is in a bubble, but some bubbles model reality far better than others!

And now I have baud making fun of me. this day can’t get worse.

This has so much WTF written all over it that it is hard to comprehend.

Not all heroes wear capes.

You are here: Home / Politics / domestic terrorists / Domestic Terrorism Open Thread: Ammon Bundy Assumes the Family Mantle

Domestic Terrorism Open Thread: Ammon Bundy Assumes the Family Mantle

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Last info I could find about his father Cliven, rumors were that the old man was rapidly sinking into dementia. Which may have been why favored son Ammon started the Malheur Wildlife Refuge occupation in Oregon back in 2014, to establish his credentials as the new leader, Clive’s chosen inheritor.

Federal intervention and the pandemic have tamped down (but did not end) Ammon’s determination to starting the next ‘freedumb uprising’ — grifting the rubes as he went, of course — but there’s a new twist:

Local news KTVB7:

… The legal battle between Bundy and the hospital began when Bundy, Diego Rodriguez, and their organizations organized days of protests at the hospital. They claimed Rodriguez’ infant grandson was “medically kidnapped” by doctors and Child Protective Services (CPS). The “Baby Cyrus” protests led to the hospital having to go into lockdown for nearly two hours on March 15, 2022. The hospital had to divert patients to other providers and prohibit visitors.

Following the lawsuit, Bundy refused to participate in legal proceedings but began to harass witnesses in the lawsuit. Attorneys for St. Luke’s Health System then filed a motion for contempt against Diego Rodriguez and his Freedom Man Press over continued harassment of witnesses in St. Luke’s defamation case against him, Ammon Bundy and their organizations.

Bundy ended up losing that legal battle. A jury ordered that he and Rodriguez must pay St. Luke’s and other plaintiffs damages exceeding $52 million stemming from ongoing protests and harassment…

Per the Idaho Statesman:

District Judge Lynn Norton of Idaho’s 4th Judicial District issued the arrest warrant for Bundy after he violated a court order to avoid witness harassment and intimidation in a since-resolved civil lawsuit against him, the Statesman previously reported. The civil warrant for Bundy was issued in April for failure to obey a preliminary injunction order, Patrick Orr, spokesperson for the Ada County Sheriff’s Office, confirmed to the Statesman by phone Saturday. Bundy ran as an independent candidate for Idaho governor in November 2022. Although he failed to unseat incumbent Republican Gov. Brad Little, Bundy earned more than 100,000 votes, or about 17% of the vote. On Saturday morning, members of Bundy’s People’s Rights Network issued a “call to action” to supporters to show up outside the Gem County Sheriff’s Office, which is in a building adjacent to the jail. Since Bundy’s arrest, a number of people had called the jail to discuss his status, White said, while others were showing up in person.

Bundy ran as an independent candidate for Idaho governor in November 2022. Although he failed to unseat incumbent Republican Gov. Brad Little, Bundy earned more than 100,000 votes, or about 17% of the vote.

On Saturday morning, members of Bundy’s People’s Rights Network issued a “call to action” to supporters to show up outside the Gem County Sheriff’s Office, which is in a building adjacent to the jail. Since Bundy’s arrest, a number of people had called the jail to discuss his status, White said, while others were showing up in person…

Per the Daily Beast, “Ammon Bundy Wants Arrest to Make Him a Martyr, Hospital Lawyer Claims”:

… Erik Stidham, a lawyer for St. Luke’s Health System, told The Daily Beast in a statement, “Mr. Bundy could easily get out of jail now by paying an extremely low bond. He is not paying the bond because he wants to use his arrest and time in jail to further a false narrative that he is some kind of martyr.”

“Mr. Bundy is not a martyr, he is a grifter who continues to grift his followers by asking them to shield him [from] paying damages and facing the contempt charges,” Stidham added.

Stidham led the legal team that won a $52 million judgment against Bundy, an associate, and three organizations after a defamation trial that Bundy boycotted.

A judge found him in contempt for failing to show up for legal proceedings, and an arrest warrant was issued in April.

In an Aug. 10 video posted on social media, Bundy bragged about all the things he has been doing instead of answering the arrest warrant—including traveling to multiple states and Mexico…

The arrest is the latest legal development in Bundy’s ongoing battle with St. Luke’s, which began after he organized days of protests, claiming an associate’s grandson was kidnapped by the hospital. In reality, 10-month-old “Baby Cyrus” was taken into protective custody after officials determined he was malnourished.

The protests spurred authorities to arrest Bundy, then a gubernatorial candidate, for trespassing outside of the hospital last March. At the time, Bundy insisted that the infant was “medically kidnapped” over a “missed non-emergency doctor’s appointment.”

The allegations spurred St. Luke’s to file a defamation suit against Bundy and Diego Rodriguez, who is Baby Cyrus’ grandfather and an activist in Bundy’s far-right People’s Rights Network (PRN).

During the course of the case, the Gem County Sheriff briefly refused to serve legal papers to Bundy on his property out of concern for his deputies’ safety—after Bundy threatened to greet law enforcement on his doorstep with a shotgun…

On Friday, the hospital filed a new complaint against Bundy, accusing him of hiding assets to “frustrate” efforts to collect their damages. In the complaint, the health-care system and other plaintiffs asked to void any transfers of property of assets made by Bundy and his family.

Bundy sold his his $1 million home in December in what the filing called a “sham transaction.” The hospital’s filing states that the Bundys are still on the property.

Reader Interactions

102Comments

  3. 3.

    bbleh

    Coupla random thoughts:
    — Martyrdom via arrest?  Sounds familiar somehow …
    — Potentially violent but disorganized crowd announcing loose plans in advance to converge on sheriff’s office? Great idea!  Can’t imagine they might prepare for that, or that they have anyone they could call to help.
    — Amazing how much public stupidity and violence can spring from untreated Oppositional Defiant Disorder.

  4. 4.

    anitamargarita

    I wish the DOJ had brought the Bundys to justice for Cliven’s grazing violations in Nevada. Could have saved a lot of trouble in Oregon and beyond.

  5. 5.

    dexwood

    Sometimes Balloon Juice is like a Seinfeld episode, a show about nothing. Carry on. Outa here.

  8. 8.

    Anne Laurie

    @Baud: I don’t know how Idaho survives.

    Gubmint teat, as I understand it.  Welfare ‘ranchers’, welfare ‘miners’, tons of government-sponsored public land, and a sh*t-ton of  ‘free market libertarians’ on Social Security and/or disability.  (Also, if rumors are to be believed, running & manufacturing methamphetamine et al.)

    All done for & by WHITE people, though, just as Republican Jeebus intended!

  11. 11.

    sdhays

    1. It’s a shame that 17% for Mr. Lunatic wasn’t enough to throw the election to the Democrat.
    2. How is it you can threaten to shoot police officers in Idaho if they show up on your property and it doesn’t result in criminal charges? Lawn order, baby!

  12. 12.

    Sure Lurkalot

    During the course of the case, the Gem County Sheriff briefly refused to serve legal papers to Bundy on his property out of concern for his deputies’ safety—after Bundy threatened to greet law enforcement on his doorstep with a shotgun…

    So you want to arm everyone through the teeth and then you’re afraid to arrest them because they’re armed through the teeth.

    Explains why cops are so proficient at shooting unarmed black people. It’s easy peasy and the deputy’s safety is not a concern. 

  13. 13.

    bbleh

    @Anne Laurie: yeah but none of those people on welfare!

    [Editor’s note: the mean recipient of SNAP and TANF is a white mother in a non-urban area not living with a married partner.]

  15. 15.

    Alison Rose

    @Sure Lurkalot: And yet they still use the “I was in fear for my life” BS because, you know, the man had a pencil or something. Pretty neat deal for the cops. Fear for their lives excuses not going after an actually dangerous person and also excuses killing a non-dangerous person.

  16. 16.

    NotMax

    @a href=”https://balloon-juice.com/2023/08/13/domestic-terrorism-open-thread-ammon-bundy-assumes-the-family-mantle/#comment-8928558″>Anne Laurie

    Many Mormons, also too.

    By percentage of the state population, Idaho at ~27% is the highest besides Utah.

  17. 17.

    El Cruzado

    I expect the People’s Rights Network to get half their roster killed in their feud with the Network for People’s Rights any day now.

  18. 18.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Parfigliano:

    Fine fly over country heartland folks those Bundys

    Where’s the nearest diner? Fly a FTFNYT reporter stenographer out there, stat!

  20. 20.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    From Trump today. Via Kyle Cheney on twitter.

    Trump, on Truth Social, has amplified an attack on Judge Chutkan, the first since Friday’s hearing, when she warned against “inflammatory” attacks on the process. The attack falsely claims she “admitted” to trying to interfere in the election to hurt him.

    Neal Katyal says

    “It would not surprise me if Judge Chutkan called a hearing, with Trump’s presence, given his new remarks.”

  21. 21.

    dmsilev

    Somehow, being hauled off to jail because you lost a lawsuit with a hospital and are evading paying up doesn’t quite have the same revolutionary cosplay draw to it as “I am fighting the overbearing Washington government goons”.

    Bad for fundraising//grifting, you know?

  23. 23.

    dmsilev

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: If she lets him stay out of jail, on condition that he wear an electric shock collar controlled by the prosecution, I think that’s a compromise we could live with. For now, anyway.

  28. 28.

    bbleh

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: if she does, I hope it is reported extensively that the Black woman judge lectured Trump sternly about X and Y and warned him about W and Z, and then sent him on his way.  And I hope she makes him wait.

    He’ll play the martyr to the hilt, but I don’t think it’ll help with non-Cultists if a well-deserved scolding is widely reported.  And to make him appear on command, and stand and sit and listen to a lecture without speaking unless told to speak, might just trigger a stroke right there.

  34. 34.

    Thor Heyerdahl

    @Sure Lurkalot:

    Explains why cops are so proficient at shooting unarmed black people. It’s easy peasy and the deputy’s safety is not a concern.

    And in Idaho, replace “black” with “native” or “first nations”.

  36. 36.

    Tony G

    @Baud: I just looked it up.  Idaho is the state that is sixth most dependent on the Federal Government for what amounts to its economy.  In other words, as a taxpayer in New Jersey I’m subsidizing the cowboy hats of these arrogant, violent deadbeats.  (The same is true of taxpayers in other “blue” states and of deadbeats in other “red” states.).  Another effect of the un-democratic U.S. Senate.   https://smartasset.com/data-studies/states-most-dependent-on-the-federal-government-2022#

  37. 37.

    Scout211

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: He didn’t actually make the remarks or type them. He or his account person retweeted @mrddmia (GOP Rep Mike Davis), who wrote the tweet.  It’s still horrible, though.  And from a congressperson. 

    ETA: Not a congressperson. Here is how he identifies himself:

    FORMER: Chief Counsel for Nominations, Senate Judiciary Chairman
    @ChuckGrassley
    * Law Clerk, Justice Gorsuch

     

    🚨Judge Tanya Chutkan—an Obama leftwing activist judge in DC, whose husband also got appointed by Obama as a DC judge—openly admitted she’s running election interference against Trump. https://t.co/Bh99FeSzCS pic.twitter.com/zbKZQFJUdD— 🇺🇸 Mike Davis 🇺🇸 (@mrddmia) August 11, 2023

  38. 38.

    Tony G

    @dmsilev: I’d prefer to see an electrified cowboy hat attached to his thick head.  Politics aside — if I were in charge I’d make it a felony to wear a cowboy hat indoors unless you are a professional Garth Brooks impersonator.  That is my dream.

  39. 39.

    BruceFromOhio

    Moon stressed, ‘Our Unity doesn’t come through vanity or personal ambition, but in defending our party’s principles and adhering to our party’s platform.”

    Oh, and democracy? Yeah, fuck that shit. Not part of the platform. Shun the non-believers! Shunnnnn!

  45. 45.

    oldster

    That Malheur episode angered me — I thought every sick grifter in the group should have been shot down in the dust for drawing guns on legitimate federal agents.
    The episode also scared me, because of how gently the grifters were treated, by the press and by the juries that refused to convict. It was one of the tell-tale signs that Trumpism was coming our way.

    There’s a straight line between our coddling their violent misbehavior at Malheur, and their tantrum at the Capitol on Jan. 6. Conversely, the fact that almost every violent fascist from the Jan. 6 episode is now doing time has had an excellent effect on showing these people that they are not above the law.

  46. 46.

    NotMax

    @BruceFromOhio

    “The sound of tireless voices is the price we pay for the right to hear the music of our own opinions. But there is also, it seems to me, a moment at which democracy must prove its capacity to act. Every man has a right to be heard; but no man has the right to strangle democracy with a single set of vocal chords.”
    – Adlai Stevenson, in 1952
    .

  47. 47.

    Kent

    @Baud: Boise is actually a blue city surrounded by a sea of red except for a few other blue dots like Moscow (home of University of Idaho) and the Indian reservations.  It is just too small to outweigh the rest of the state.  If Boise were the size of say Portland then Idaho would probably be a blue state.

    It is basically the equivalent of Austin, Dallas, and Houston being blue cities in the sea of red that is the rest of Texas.

  48. 48.

    NotMax

    @Scout211

    Would not come as a surprise that, much like Cheney did with planting fiction asserting Iraq’s nuclear program in the press and then quoting those same stories as “proof,” that someone(s) in Dolt 45’s orbit planted the seed for this allegation specifically so Dolt 45’s account could then go on to cite it.

  50. 50.

    Scout211

    @NotMax:  It sounds like he is a political operative so your theory is possible.

    Mike Davis has a substack.

    Unfazed and Determined

    FIGHTING FOR THE RULE OF LAW — AND PUNCHING BACK AGAINST CANCEL CULTURE, WOKE NONSENSE, AND BIG TECH MONOPOLISTS AND OTHER CORPORATE ENABLERS

    About:
    Mike Davis is the founder and president of the Internet Accountability Project (IAP), Article III Project (A3P), and the Unsilenced Majority.

  53. 53.

    Ken

    If Judge Chutkan ever does order Trump jailed for a couple days for contempt of court, I fully expect him to throw a tantrum in court and keep screaming at her, while she keeps gaveling and announcing longer jail terms and larger fines, until Trump’s lawyer tackles him and shoves a gag in his mouth.

  56. 56.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @Scout211: Beau of the Fifth Column draws the following analogy: You go into a Starbucks.  You ask everyone in there if they’ll write down on scrap of paper, “Give me a million dollars.”  One person goes along with it.  Then you take that piece of paper to the bank down the street, and hand it to the teller.  I doubt the police will buy that “someone else” wrote it down.

  57. 57.

    Ken

    @Scout211: Mike Davis is the founder and president of the Internet Accountability Project (IAP), Article III Project (A3P), and the Unsilenced Majority.

    I know 501(c)3 is for non-profits, and 527 is for PACS, but what’s the IRS code for organizations whose sole purpose is grift?

  61. 61.

    Geminid

    I’ve read that radicals took over the Georgia Republican party apparatus, like they did in Idaho.. Governor Kemp and others aligned with his faction have been able to work around them so far.

    It’s a lot easier to take over a state or local party organization than it is to win primaries. Last year the radicals in Georgia opposed both Kemp’s and Secretary of State Raffensperger’s renominations and even had Trump’s help, but a majority of primary voters still put both incumbents on the November ballot and they won.

    In other states like Michigan though, the radicals seem to have the upper hand. Nationwide, this dynamic may well be a factor in next year’s House primaries, with knuckle-dragging radicals primarying incumbents from the right. That will make the prospects of another Republican House Majority in 2025 even dimmer.

    I wish this was just McCarthy’s problem, but the radical/establishment fight could also affect military aid to Ukraine. Anti-Ukraine sentiments seem to be gaining traction among the radical party base and will be a factor in next month’s budget fights.

  63. 63.

    Jackie

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: The most meaningful threat Chutkan has is moving the trial to an earlier date. And, if TIFG has any brain cells at all, he’ll bite his tongue.

    I hope whoever the Fulton County judge is follows suit with the same threat.

  66. 66.

    smith

    @Jackie: The problem with the moving-trial-forward strategy is that there is a real limit to how far she can go before TFG has a legitimate cause for appeal based on not having had enough time to prepare a defense.

  68. 68.

    zhena gogolia

    @Ken: I don’t expect that at all. He’s very quiet when he’s in person at these events. He blows his mouth off when he feels safe.

  69. 69.

    smith

    One possible consequence the judge could use if he continues to threaten people would be to make him spend part of each week in detention. He couldn’t claim he was prevented from campaigning, he’d just have to adjust his schedule to fit around it.

  70. 70.

    Jackie

    @smith: True. But as TIFG’s strategy is delay, delay, delay I’m hoping he realizes there is no way his hope of postponing the trial until after the election has a chance as long as he insists on compromising the jury pool. TIFG might actually have to spend 24 hrs in jail. His lawyers are all going to be bald from tearing their hair out trying to muzzle him.

  71. 71.

    Alison Rose

    @Ken: OMG I might see this in my nightmares. I mean, it was good! But oh so creepy seeing the voice coming out of an actual human and with such an uncanny valley situation going on.

  76. 76.

    Honus

    @Tony G:Fact: Bum Phillips never wore a cowboy hat in the Astrodome when he was coaching the Oilers because his mother had taught him never to wear a hat indoors/under roof

  77. 77.

    wjca

    @oldster: 👍

    It was appalling that the Bundys didn’t get arrested and charged the first time around.  Not to mention heavily fined for grazing their cattle without paying grazing fees.

  80. 80.

    David Chop

    I’m old enough to remember when this one went down.

    They openly steal from taxpayers by refusing to pay federal grazing fees.

    The fees were about 10 cents on the dollar compared to grazing fees on private property. Didn’t even want to pay that. Free. They wanted it for free, and were willing to (or were at least willing to threaten to) kill people for it.

    Here’s hoping that those handcuffs are just the beginning of this ass hole’s troubles.

  81. 81.

    patrick II

    The Bundy clan has long-called for selling all public land. They openly steal from taxpayers by refusing to pay federal grazing fees.

    I thought that Amon’s father said that he thought the land was “free range” — that is what he used to justify grazing his cattle without fees. I thought he was a dupe because Koch and other right-wing big-money organizations were funding Bundy under the table and if the feds lost control of the land to the states it would be sold off. It seems they weren’t dupesat all but fellow conspirators in turning a profit on a cowboy fantasy.

  83. 83.

    Yarrow

    Re: the Marion County Record:

    New: The @rcfp and more than 30 news organizations, including The New York Times, Dow Jones and The Washington Post, have written to the chief of the Marion Police Department to condemn its raid on the Marion County Record: pic.twitter.com/Nlremice5m
    — Ben Mullin (@BenMullin) August 13, 2023

  84. 84.

    karen marie

    @dmsilev:   Wait till he and his friends find out that unlike a civil matter, no-showing for a criminal case results in bail being revoked and his fat ass sent to jail.

    It will be interesting to see how long it takes to catch up to him again now that he’s been released.

  85. 85.

    Mike in NC

    @Baud:  During WW2 the US Navy built a huge boot camp in Idaho on a lake in case the Japanese struck bases on the West Coast. It was named Farragut Training Center, I think. Graduated tens of thousands of young sailors.

  88. 88.

    RaflW

    @Kent: Texas is far closer together than Idaho, though. Biden got 46.5% in TX, but only 33.1% in ID. It’s not imminent, but Texas could flip in the foreseeable future.

    Idaho? Only if Democrats decided to, en masse, move move than a quarter million solid, vote-every-election fellow Dems into ID over a short period of time (if anything, I’ve read that Idaho is — not quite officially — marketing itself for conservatives to move there).

  89. 89.

    Geoduck

    The Washington state GOP has always been feral, and as they’ve lost power in the state capitol, it’s not surprising they’ve gotten worse.

  90. 90.

    Yutsano

    @Geoduck: And yet…the state GOP keeps losing power. I’m not expecting Brad Klippert to lose his seat any time soon but watching him go from semi reasonable to complete rabid chipmunk is revealing.

  92. 92.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @Yutsano:

    watching him go from semi reasonable to complete rabid chipmunk is revealing.

    That statement made me think.  I watch a lot of children’s entertainment, and I recall you do as well?  The shift in content in the last ten years or so has been radical.  White men are no longer the default.  Adventure shows with girl leads, non-white leads, queer leads, they are common and popular.  Very, very popular.  I’m sure the asshole old racists don’t watch cartoons, but they have to be seeing current mainstream culture abandoning them as the center of the world.  No wonder they’ve completely flipped their shit.  The election of a black president was followed by every apocalyptic fantasy they imagined and some they never dreamed of.

  93. 93.

    scav

    The next Free Range Frontier for Real ‘Merkans. Siccing it to the Feds by getting three  square and a bed at the government’s teat.  Heroes.

  95. 95.

    Shalimar

    @JaySinWA: Not just out of office.  There was a non-partisan primary in August and Klippert finished 5th. Three other Republicans and a Democrat beat him.  Apparently he wasn’t crazy enough for the base.

  98. 98.

    The Thin Black Duke

    @WereBear: I get so tired of seeing mean stupid violent white men getting away with hateful bullshit. As James Baldwin said, “Not everything faced can be changed, but nothing will change until it is faced.”

  100. 100.

    Miss Bianca

    @patrick II: Yo, Bundy Senior: “Free range” ain’t free, shithead. Ignorance of the law is no excuse, and pretended ignorance of the law is even less excusable.

  101. 101.

    Miss Bianca

    @Yarrow: “Oh, shit, you mean this authoritarian shit’s about to get real *for us* now?”

    Oh well. Better late than never, I guess, NYT et al.

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