Wednesday, February 03, 2016

Storm Over Rangelands: Boise Land Seizure Conference and the Spectacle of Lawlessness at Malheur

Ammon Bundy had planned to appear at Utah Freedom’s “Storm Over Rangelands” Conference in Boise on Saturday. Storm Over Rangelands is the title of Sagebrush Rebel Wayne Hage’s 1990s book.

I was present at the surreal ceremony honoring Adrian Sewell, a rancher from New Mexico who “renounced” his grazing permit at Malheur, three days before the Bundy arrest. Lavoy Finicum stated at the ceremony that ranchers would be protected if they had trouble with the Feds – implying militia intimidation.

...The large conference room in the Grove, easily seating 500 people or more, held a scant 60 people.

Boise Storm Afternoon Session speakers were:

Rancher Tim Rice from Burns, Oregon, a founding member of the militia/posse comitatus “Committee of Safety” group from Burns, Oregon; rancher Cliff Gardner from Ruby Valley, Nevada; rancher Dr. Angus McIntosh (adjunct at Texas A&M). This was followed by a panel discussion, with panelists Rice, Gardner, McIntosh and MacFarlane. Jon Pratt had written questions from the audience they responded to.

...Interestingly, the first charges brought against Ammon Bundy and his inner circle of Militants are under a under Civil War era law.

“The Confederacy began seizing federal buildings as states seceded, Blair said. States and armed groups took over federal courthouses, naval yards, forts, customs houses and post offices” … “Bundy and that crowd are sort of latter-day secessionists,” he said, because they’ve demanded federal land be handed over to local control.

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