Fiddling while Burns burns

Have you heard?

Tea Party activists are taking over the town of Burns, Oregon, to protest the government going after a local ranching family for their lawbreaking. It's like what happened in the Cliven Bundy standoff in Bunkerville, Nevada, in 2014. In fact, Bundy's sons are leading the attempted right-wing coup in Oregon.

The Tea Party is there to support members of the Hammond family who were sentenced to prison for repeated arsons. In 2001, the Hammonds illegally shot deer on public land - so they set fire to hundreds of acres of this land to destroy the evidence of their poaching. In 2006, they set another fire that they claimed was to stop a wildfire from reaching their ranch. This blaze almost killed some firefighters.

But - as in Bunkerville - local residents are getting sick of the Tea Party's shit. Even USA Today - not exactly a leftist organ - says that residents' message to them is, "Go away."

Now the Tea Party "militia" has burglarized the headquarters of a local wildlife refuge and is threatening to kill wildlife officials who try to make them leave. The situation is so unstable that schools are closing for a week.

Of course nobody in Burns likes right-wing thugs taking over their town, but what are they doing about it? Is there any indication that they're actually fighting them off? I haven't seen any. Maybe I'm underestimating people's willingness to fight. But I haven't seen Occupy do a single fucking thing since 2014 to fight back against anything, so I'm not very optimistic.

One thing is for sure: If I lived in Burns, this invasion would stop. It would be no more. I don't put up with garbage like this. If it came here - although an inner-city area like this doesn't have much in common with a ranching place like Burns - I'd say the same thing. (The closest we came to an incursion like this was probably a few years ago when a Republican politician had an office that sold heroin.) I support the Bill of Rights - and don't just give lip service to it - and I don't fight with one hand behind my back.

Try me, Tea Party.

(Source: http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2016/01/04/burns-oregon-militia-locals/78289510)