Armed domestic terrorists take over federal building, but it's OK, they're white

Oh thank goodness. For a moment there I thought I saw a 12-year-old black kid.

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Yep - Armed terrorists.

Surround the place and protect the neighbors. Cut off the electricity, cell service, phone, Internet & water.
The toilets will get nasty soon enough.

Play Pat Boone at them over the loudspeakers 24/7 until they beg to be allowed to turn themselves in. The same damn song.

Make them stay there longer in the sewage anyway. At least a month.

Then, after processing, make them go back and clean up their mess - no showers till you’re done.

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Hey, we’re just using the US Government’s own definition of terrorism. If they didn’t want it applied to people like them, they shouldn’t have written it so broadly (maybe included a “melanin threshold” clause).

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So…when Russian speakers in the Donbass decide they would like their pensions and health service back and start a separatist movement, this is obviously action by the Russian government. When a group of white ranchers in Oregon announce that they are starting a separatist movement, which unfriendly government does the US have to blame?

Well, at least the US is consistent. It is opposed to armed rebels in the Donbass. It is opposed to armed rebels in Oregon. It is opposed to armed rebels in Syria…oops, what was I saying? It supports the freedom fighters in Syria in their fight against the Government.

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Domestic Terrorists: They want to take away our guns!

Yes. Yes, we do.

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Well, to be fair, if they took over a mall like Black Lives, I’m sure the cops would at least ask them to leave. Politely, at a distance. You get a different response if you mess with almighty commerce (and a very different response if you’re not white, of course).

I think this lack of reaction is because there’s a real effort to avoid replicating Waco or Ruby Ridge, in the same way, I was reading, that the IRS is basically not enforcing tax codes to avoid repeating the fallout from over-examining the tax returns for Tea Party groups. Weirdly this desire not to re-offend only applies to white conservative groups. When it comes everyone else, the government is willing to make/allow the police to make the same fatal mistakes over and over and over again…

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Just like their father’s told me when I was protesting Vietnam war, “love it or leave it”

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Coincidentally, the Little Richard version of this song never gets old. It just gets better and better when played on a loop.

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Oregon Public Radio has some good pieces on the "#OregonUnderAttack " deal:

In the FYI department, Burns is way the hell out in the middle of nowhere, in the eastern third of Oregon, maybe five hours from Portland, over the Cascase Range and way through High Desert territory. The furthest I’ve got out there is Brothers, a tiny, tiny town in the almost exact middle of the state.

Empty enough out there to launch rockets. When our rocket set off grass fires we put them out.

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This is very unkind and so unnecessary. In fact, in Europe it is contrary to the Declaration of Human Rights.
And remember, these people have the right to bear arms and to form a well regulated militia. We should sympathise with their aspirations to statehood, so similar to those of the European settlers of the US.
Put up a fence around them at a suitable distance and put a customs post in it and border control. Then encourage like minded individuals to join them. Show the US commitment to freedom.

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It’s not just a skin-color thing, though - it also has to do with politics. The US government has historically been very happy to apply the label of “terrorist” to left-leaning groups that have committed property damage (but been very careful not to risk harm to people) but reluctant to label racist or anti-choice groups as terrorists even when they were waging organized campaigns of fear where they threatened to bomb or shoot people (or actually did so).

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I do not understand the “white separatist” label. Are they seeking a homeland where white people can be white? Because I hear we already have that.

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I suspect that Washington would be having a very, very, unhappy chat with Ottowa if ‘civilian volunteers’ with valuable Canadian military experience started showing up; but until then, they’ll handle it with kid gloves and hope it goes away.

The adverse PR from Waco and Ruby Ridge really spooked the feds, so are probably going to avoid trying for a sequel; which limits their options considerably.

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Point, very much point, but much less pithy than my comment. :wink:

In complete agreement, though, on that historical note. I’d have to speculate on how much of that dichotomy in treatment has to do with the effective economic caste system we have in this country. People are not property (anymore) and therefore don’t have value to the highest castes of corporations and 1%ers, hence the lack of focus and concern on crimes against persons. Property, however, is highly likely to belong to those high castes, and therefore crimes against property are more likely to be punitively punished and negatively labeled.

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Fox News “folk hero” Cliven Bundy quoted on the abolition of slavery:

“[African Americans] abort their young children, they put their young men in jail, because they never learned how to pick cotton. And I’ve often wondered, are they better off as slaves, picking cotton and having a family life and doing things, or are they better off under government subsidy?”

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Truly great.

His unsanitized lyrics were about gay sex.

“Tutti Frutti, good booty
If it don’t fit, don’t force it
You can grease it, make it easy”

Fun to think Pat Boone made his name singing about gay sex. I don’t think a version of Little Richard singing that version is available.

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Wouldn’t showing it’s commitment to freedom mean sending them to Gitmo?

When a group of white ranchers in Oregon announce that they are starting a separatist movement, which unfriendly government does the US have to blame?

“enemies foreign and domestic” covers a lot of ground.

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drone strike?

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They want a place where they can discriminate against whoever they want.

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