"I'm a sovereign human being, I stand under common law only" - Thread of Freemen

smh

I've spent a lot of time driving, camping, digging, etc. in the Great Basin and it's a lot like the first Mad Max movie. There's civilization of sorts, but really it's just people who believe in the old ways so strongly that when you get out of the car, it's still 1975. There are towns that have to support the old ways because the Old Ones still have to buy groceries, gas, fireworks, and prostitutes. Nevertheless it's still 1975 and it's weird taking a picture of 1975 with an iPhone because the people who still live in 1975 haven't seen one before. That's the part of the Great Basin that's more like Vanishing Point. The reality is that it's more like Reno 911.

Eastern Oregon is also the home of: http://99percentinvisible.org/episode/rajneeshpuram/

digging?

http://www.chicagotribune.com/ct-read-u-s-attorney-statement-on-oregon-standoff-20160104-htmlstory.html

Ecowatch points out the relationship between far right activity and mainstream Republican rhetoric. http://ecowatch.com/2016/01/05/bundy-militia-public-lands/#

As militant occupation continues in Oregon, sheriff says 'go home'

Ebony explains why black people feel their is a double standard here: http://www.ebony.com/news-views/oregon-standoff-reveals-painfully-obvious-racial-double-standard-333

http://www.sltrib.com/lifestyle/faith/3377742-155/mormon-leaders-to-oregon-militia-your

official lds church response

new favorite term for this is "Cowliphate"

there's probably some reason not to make all those jokes but idgaf, the Gadsden Flag image with "send snacks" cracks me up as well.

I still say Y'all Qaeda ftw.

The Mormon angle is an interesting one. I watched Frontline's two-part documentary on the history of the Mormons and while the main body of the church is very into not shaking things up and being very aligned with getting along with the government, there's the undercurrent of having a long memory about the contentious relationship with the federal government and the fact that Mormon culture really is prepper culture.

Vanilla Isis is still my front-runner, but Cowliphate works well.

i still just can't even deal with this picture

https://twitter.com/amandapeacher/status/683741037207007232

should be enough

hahahahaa

Gives me hope that left alone they'll eventually kill and eat each other, and the last survivor will die of trichinosis or mad cow disease.

hopefully.

http://www.vox.com/2016/1/5/10714746/waco-ruby-ridge-oregon

That statement by the US Attorney for Oregon lays things out pretty clearly: the crimes, the basic testimony, the verdict, and the plea agreement. The presiding judge attempted to lay aside both the plea agreement and ignore the mandatory minimum sentence imposed by Congress, but his unlawful sentencing was overturned on appeal, as he certainly knew it would be.

In any case, why won’t they shoot at armed white fanatics isn’t just the wrong question; it’s a bad one. Not only does it hold lethal violence as a fair response to the Bundy militia, but it opens a path to legitimizing the same violence against more marginalized groups. As long as the government is an equal opportunity killer, goes the argument, violence is acceptable.

But that’s perverse. If there’s a question to ask on this score, it’s not why don’t they use violence, it’s why aren’t they more cautious with unarmed suspects and common criminals? If we’re outraged, it shouldn’t be because law enforcement isn’t rushing to violently confront Bundy and his group. We should be outraged because that restraint isn’t extended to all Americans.

http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2016/01/the_oregon_standoff_with_ammon_bundy_isn_t_evidence_of_a_racial_double_standard.html

That's exactly where my outrage lies.

the more prescient racist double standard at work. not too hot on twitter for some reason.

http://www.thestranger.com/blogs/slog/2016/01/04/23341055/required-reading-the-malheur-national-wildlife-refuge-was-taken-over-once-before-back-in-the-19th-century

Burns Paiute Tribe chairperson Charlotte Rodrique told The Stranger that she would not dignify the "Constitutional Freedom" group's movement with a formal statement from the tribe, but would comment as an individual.

"I do not condone the actions of the 'Constitutional Freedom' group who have taken over occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge Headquarters," Rodrique wrote in an e-mail. "I believe there is little local support for their 'cause'. I have not observed many 'locals' at their gatherings. As a tribal member, I will not dignify their movement with a formal statement. The leaders [of the group] have taken it upon themselves to speak on issues that are of no concern to tribal interests. They seem to be motivated by greed and anger."

xp sorry for being flippant.

amazing

#1 group I hope throws shade at these ppl, tbh xxp

The "Wise Use" movement and the corporate and libertarian fucks responsible for it:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wise_use

Excellent article on Wise Use from PRA in 1993 - this before OKC, but it's still relevant.

http://www.publiceye.org/magazine/v07n2/wiseuse.html

promoting the expansion of private property rights

oh yeah sounds like a blast

According to McCarthy (2002),[1] the most prominent wise use groups receive most of their support from resource extraction industries (Amoco, British Petroleum, Chevron, Exxon/Mobile, Marathon Oil) as well as the American Farm Bureau, Dupont, Yamaha, General Electric, General Motors, National Cattlemen's Association, and the National Rifle Association).

Well now that you put it like that, what could possibly go wrong?

made me think of the scene from Naked Gun 2 1/2. I couldn't find a clip of but...

Chief of Staff John Sununu: Thank you. Mr. President, tonight I am extremely proud to welcome our distinguished guests from the nation's energy suppliers. From the coal industry, chairman of the Society for More Coal Energy, or "SMOCE", Mr. Terence Baggett. Representing the oil industry, head of the Society of Petroleum Industry Leaders, better known as "SPIL", Mr. Donald Fenswick...
Donald Fenswick: Thank you, thank you very much.
Chief of Staff John Sununu: And from the nuclear industry, president of the Key Atomic Benefits Office of Mankind - "KABOOM", Mr. Arthur Dunwell.

dude compared himself to rosa parks

hush that fuss

"Wise use" has pretty much always been Astroturf.

So many conservative causes present themselves as "get the oppressive tyrant's boot off the neck of the common man" when it's more like "let the orgiastic greed-party continue," but I suspect this is preaching to the choir here

probably, but that was a succinct summary

Yeah, I've been thinking about this lately, because I have had some neighbors who have had utterly asinine problems with local building codes lately, where I'm like "ok, so here is a very specific point where I concede that government has no business having any opinion at all about the height of this guy's front steps." But I have no idea how to go about seeking a remedy for that without aligning myself with extreme anti-regulation types.

sign a petition and take it to the city council imo

I mean the government does have a business, the government's business includes defending public safety. There are step rises which are too high to be generally safe.

This one was apparently too short. ¯\(°_°)/¯

Back to the topic at hand, I'm sad that these guys are more of the "copy of constitution in glovebox of pickup truck" instead of the "maritime law" variety.

Not to purposefully defend HOAs or anything stupidly restrictive, but there is a spectrum of safe tread and riser dimensions for stairs, with corresponding graphs for likelihood of injury if either measurement gets too out of sync. Iirc a lot of it has to do with the size of ppl's feet, the average length of strides, the amount of strain caused by level of incline, possible momentum built up in a hypothetical fall, and so on.

Like the same way that slow drivers are a danger on highways, somewhat counterintuitively, a too-shallow stair size might also cause ppl to trip more or try to take 2 at once, or some other behavioral quirk that increases risk.

I'm sorry, blame it on a lifetime of dinner conversations led by a mechanical engineer.

"Maritime law" = A good point, which gives me an idea.

Seems to me a shame that so many of these FreedomBoner (tm) dudes are into land-based pursuits (farming / hunting / ranching / mining / drilling), when their liberty-centric ideology would be very much more at home on the open seas. They'd be much more well-adjusted (and probably do less overall harm) if they took their shtick to international waters.

I would support redirecting all current initiatives intended to mollify and/or pacify the militia kooks of the montane west, and simply building them a half-dozen caravels or barquentines. Let them go privateering, fishing, oil-drilling, even getting mad piratical, if that's what they're into. Only one condition: they would need to wear eye-patches, pouffy blouses, and lots of pansy-asss scarves while they do it.

if ppl are really using the history of enclosure in england as a rationale, that's pretty 'maritime law'-ish

Libertarian tech bros have had the whole "international waters"/"private island libertarian utopia" thing sewn up for years. They're not gonna be mingling with a bunch of rednecks if they can help it.

imagine plenty of us English don't think enclosure was a civilization-enhancing event

I'll admit, I have in the past completely taken possession of someone else's front steps for hours at a time.

The maritime law ppl aren't into the high seas, they're just using any flimsy excuse to contravene federal authority and to argue that they should be exempt from the actual legal system.

"Maritime law" = A good point, which gives me an idea.

Seems to me a shame that so many of these FreedomBoner (tm) dudes are into land-based pursuits (farming / hunting / ranching / mining / drilling), when their liberty-centric ideology would be very much more at home on the open seas. They'd be much more well-adjusted (and probably do less overall harm) if they took their shtick to international waters.

― ineluctable modality of the chewable (Ye Mad Puffin), Wednesday, January 6, 2016 5:13 PM (32 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Would watch this film