Apparently teabagger militiamen may have some issues with people of color:
Republican politicians began backtracking on their support of Nevada anti-government rancher Cliven Bundy after the New York Times caught Bundy making racially-inflammatory remarks blaming African-Americans for willingly submiting to dependency on federal assistance.
“They abort their young children, they put their young men in jail, because they never learned how to pick cotton,” Bundy was quoted as saying to a group of supporters last Saturday. “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? They didn’t get no more freedom. They got less freedom.”
Bundy’s statements about “the Negro,” published on Wednesday, were made during his daily speech to supporters outside Bunkerville, Nevada, where a crowd gathered to support him in defiance of the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) during an attempted round up of his cattle. The confrontation was the result of Bundy’s refusal to pay grazing fees on federally-owned land for more than 20 years, in spite of multiple court rulings against him. Bundy has stated on several occasions that he does not recognize the existence of the federal government.
Every single fucking Republican who spoke out in favor of this loser should have their words plastered on tv commercials over this racist asshole’s words. Can we find a left-wing Adelson to fund these damned ads?
Also, I’m going to be forced to go through the Reason archives looking for complimentary pieces on Bundy by Welch, Gillespie, Sullum, and crew, aren’t I? That alone makes me sick to my stomach.
scav
They sure know how to pick their heroes and ideal exemplars of ‘merkanhood.
AKA How’s that outreach going for you guys?
poptartacus
no fucking way, this sorry cheesedick said that? Im not surprised he feels that way. I’m amazed he said it out loud. He is 9 different kinds of motherfucker- stupid, sorry, racist, dumb, ect.
Alison
Yeah, this is the fucking bastard the right wing idolizes. And the main reason? They all think the same things, but they don’t have the audacious balls to say it, so the cheer on the dipshit who does.
NotMax
The just can’t stop themselves, can they?
Sen. Heller’s staff will be burning the midnight oil.
Among others.
cokane
no surprise. love the cognitive dissonance. also get to work on that cole. i dont pay you for slouching around
Mustang Bobby
So how long before the gang at Fox starts referring to him as “colorful” and “folksy”?
J.Ty
I know this is politically short-sighted, but burn him and his ranch and everybody who shows up to defend it to the ground.
Assuming they shoot first. Otherwise, continue making a spectacle kthx
cckids
@poptartacus:
Not only did he say it out loud, he JUST said it. This isn’t some ancient videotape (not that would excuse it), but he knows the world is watching him, and still he spouts this ignorance.
AxelFoley
Cliven is welcome to try to put us back in chains.
I gotta warn him, though–this time it won’t go your way.
Anne Laurie
I’m seeing some twitter-speculation that Bundy is clinically senile, which wouldn’t be a big surprise. People who’ve watched his recent media appearances say he’s being ‘wound up & set off’ — if you’ve watched someone with senile dementia (like, for instance, second-term Ronald Reagan) they can seem competent as long as they’re reciting stuff from their longterm memory and then fall apart completely when they’re pressed to respond to new questions.
Doesn’t excuse his racist comments, of course, but it raises the question: Was the verbal ‘lure’ that called out Bundy’s old-skool hate speech thrown by a Stormfronter hoping for validation?
Or was it a “moderate” — possibly a GOP insider? — trying, and succeeding, to get the old man to show his addlepated worst to the media?
You probably weren’t paying attention back then, Cole, but the Iran-Contra hearings scared a lot of low-information voters… watching the President shift from the practiced professional reciting speeches about America and Freedom suddenly turn into a stammering alte kacker who literally couldn’t remember what day of the week it was, live on the teevee, had a real impact on how “people” understood what was going on in the White House. I’m a professional cynic, but I’m getting a whiff of that here.
J.Ty
@Anne Laurie: Don’t give this guy that much credit. He’s fighting the BLM, for fuck’s sake.
Alex
For those of you who had Dana Loesch in the “Conservative who will defend Bundy’s remarks” pool, collect your winnings.
http://danaloeschradio.com/cliven-bundys-remark/
NotMax
@Anne Laurie
Rather, it is symptomatic of a spreading disease which I call Rand Paulsy.
Betty Cracker
Wait a minute — this public land usurping leech is criticizing others for goverent dependency? It really is all about projection with these assholes. And I sincerely hope he and his gun-toting supporters get the opportunity to personally explore the delights of forced labor in shackles very soon.
MikeJ
You don’t have to dig into Reason’s archives on your own. google will do it for you. Thirty two hits there, for now.
Anne Laurie
@J.Ty: And I will be the first to cheer when he loses — which he will.
But I’m just as interested in the puppeteers as I am in the puppet. Bundy is an old Mormon bigot who hasn’t had a fresh idea since the Nixon administration, and isn’t going to listen to anyone who might tell him better. But what’s Sean Hannity’s excuse for giving this welfare rancher a platform?
MikeJ
@Anne Laurie:
Bullshit. This fight has been in the courts for over twenty years. I don’t believe he could have deteriorated to this level that long ago and not be much, much worse by now.
He’s not crazy, he’s just an asshole.
scav
@Alex: Oh yes Dana, it only sounds offensive, it’s actually just an inarticulate folk articulation of a deep meaningful truth! It requires simply years and years of “media-training” to establish that thin veneer of not appearing to be stupid, mean, bigoted, delusional and crass but being so in suave, Faux-friendly dulcet tones.
Anne Laurie
@MikeJ:
Also possible. But I didn’t say he was senile 20 years ago, just that people who’ve seen his recent broadcasts think he’s senile now. For the record, I’m quite sure Bundy has been an asshole going back any time over the last 50 years, minimum. Which doesn’t mean that he isn’t being used as a live-action prop today by the Sovereign Citizens and Stormfronters — not to mention much more powerful klowns like Sean Hannity & the people who pay Hannity’s salary.
Again, this may be Reagan-the-opposite-of-nostalgia on my part. Even when he was young and technically compos mentis, Reagan couldn’t have come up with ideas like selling arms to the Iranians to finance his illegal South American death squads if you gave him a batch of Ludlum novels and a whiteboard. But once he was safely installed for his second term, the human detritus of his administration felt “liberated” to commit high crimes & misdemeanors i his name, and Nancy was too busy keeping her charge from soiling himself in public to pay attention to all that political stuff any more.
Bundy looks like the perfect Upright White Citizen to publicly defy those BLM guvmint varmints. He’s so perfect, I’ve been suspicious all along about the people crowding up behind him waiting for their chance at the mic.
Villago Delenda Est
@Anne Laurie:
Ratings. Clicks.
The usual.
Calming Influence
@AxelFoley: Got your back.
#Moocowfoodstamps
Calming Influence
Just bought 10,000 llamas on Ebay. Gonna have them delivered to Bundy’s “spread”. I’m sure he won’t mind; what’s good for the goose is good for the gander.
Betty Cracker
Regarding the senility angle — Bundy is 68. I realize dementia can occur at earlier ages, but isn’t it kind of unusual? Team Asshole rather than Team Crazy for me. (That doesn’t sound right, but y’all know what I mean!)
EriktheRed
Anybody else here looking forward to what Hannity has to say about this?
Aqualad08
@EriktheRed:
Judging by FOX New’s website, updated twice since this came out, NOT VERY MUCH.
Move along, little doggies, to the next great outrage!
ChaseBears
I was browsing the comments on a random Reason piece and found this:
Republican propaganda theory 101: everyone looks the same when they’re covered in shit.
and of course libertarian theory 101, me and mine uber alles.
Botsplainer
@Anne Laurie:
Like a lot of the Irish, he hates people of color.
Ironic, ain’t it?
Andrew
Shockingly, this cattle-driving welfare queen might also be slightly racist.
It’s crank magnetism. The greatest statistical predictor of someone holding a stupid, vile, or misanthropic belief is whether they hold other stupid, vile, or misanthropic beliefs.
Reflectionephemeral
This was such a big thing Jonathan Chait missed in his cover article a few weeks back. Yes, tax cuts aren’t inherently racist. But this vehemence & selectivity reflects something deeper. Hatred of government followed from racist anxiety.
Baud
Bundy is clearly an Obama plant whose inflammatory remarks are intended to distract us from Benghazi.
OzarkHillbilly
@Betty Cracker:How about both? I have known many crazy assholes over the years. In fact, they quite often go hand in hand.
raven
@OzarkHillbilly: I’m voting for stupid, racist, and asshole.
p.a.
@Reflectionephemeral: Once the govt. started inching away from support of segregation. When govt. was seen as a partner, no issues. Hence: state’s rights. Move the goalposts.
Schlemizel
@AxelFoley:
That comment gave me a twisted idea. We have to find a way to start the rumor among the mouth-breathing morans the the idea of FEMA reeducation camps is true but with a twist. Those camps are really designed for the reeducation of the “the welfare class” (hell they use the dog whistle so this will make the story MORE believable to them) and their reintroduction to picking cotton and other useful service.
If that idea got planted in their tiny brains it wouldn’t be long before they were demanding FEMA camps be built in their community RIGHT HERE – RIGHT NOW!
raven
Even Mornin Joe is on the case.
bemused
@Anne Laurie:
Can’t wait to see what Jon Stewart does with this right after Hannity tried to punch back against Stewart’s mocking of Hannity’s promotion of Bundy.
Mustang Bobby
@raven: Can’t see it from here; has anyone used the term “unfortunate choice of words” yet?
raven
@Mustang Bobby: Howard Dean and some other dude are ripping Bundy and his media supporters as “giving the Democrats a great gift”. Joe agrees.
Mustang Bobby
@raven: Couldn’t be better if they delivered it with candy and a stripper.
Baud
@raven:
My only regret is that Bundy didn’t hold off until more Republicans had come to his aid.
OzarkHillbilly
@Mustang Bobby: Oh, I don’t know, those sound like improvements to just about anything to me.
JPL
@raven: What did he say? I just now started to stream the show and they are talking about the next representative from Beverly Hills.
edit.. just read your response to mustang bob.. thank you
JPL
The problem with Bundy is that he will now disappear from the news and there will be little mention of his racial comments. He’s the real moocher.
Scott S.
He’s a militia freak. All the militia freaks are racists and traitors. They have been ever since Clinton’s days. Find me a non-racist militia freak and I’ll eat my hat (which is luckily made of chocolate).
OzarkHillbilly
@JPL: Being a white racist moocher is OK, as long as you don’t talk about the racist parts.
Waynski
@Botsplainer:
WTF – I’m Irish and I’m pretty sure we don’t have the market cornered on racism, and BTW saying so is inherently racist.
NonyNony
Wait – you mean to say that the rancher demanding that he be allowed to use Federal land to feed his cattle without paying for it and willing to take up arms against the US government to maintain his right to free grazing land might possibly be a racist asshole?
I haven’t been this shocked since I discovered that there was gambling going on at Rick’s Cafe!
(I know a number of ranchers out west, of all different political stripes. Given Bundy’s profile, the only thing that surprises me is that his little outburst was about black people instead of Native Americans. Different part of the west, I suppose.)
Mudge
@Betty Cracker: Pat Summitt
Botsplainer
@Waynski:
I stand by my comment. The intersection of Irish heritage and conservative Catholicism brings out an intense racialist component among Irish folks I know.
The less Big C Catholic they are, the better they are. I declined to assist the little bro of a guy I worked with over this. He was a huge guy who picketed abortion clinics, prayed in Latin and screamed “slut” and “whore” at young women entering, but when he was wanting to adopt, wanted only a white baby and would consider nothing else, no birth defects or kids with any color. I called him on it.
We’re not friends anymore.
aimai
I agree with Annie Laurie that when you hear Bundy speak its pretty clear that he has rote memorized some pretty stupid and historically inaccurate shit, and that he repeats it in a way that makes it sound like he’s just regurgitating something someone told him. All his stuff about how he “improved the land” and therefore owns it is straight out of the “took a mail order course in law” style of reasoning.
However nothing that he said about race is at all novel, surprising, or not completely current received wisdom on the far right. In fact to them this is all a seamless web with government overreach leading one to talk quite naturally about how blacks are lazy. These are well worn paths in the right wing brain and have been since before the Civil War. Slavery was a way to force black people to work. Freedom was seen as a danger that would enable black people to refuse to work. Guranteed minimum wages, the welfare state, are all seen as more of a governmen plot to enable black people not to work. If you start one part of the conversation you get to the “black people are lazy” part very soon. (Don’t get me started on the confusion of ‘they abort their babies that they are having every second in order to get more generous welfare benefits.’ At this point cognitive dissonance is the cement that glues his stupid ideas together.)
No one had to “set this guy in motion”–he has been cranking around the backlands for a while doing and saying exacctly this. What he says isn’t even controversial out there among his peers and his kid’s internet friends. And that is where this has leaped from a local crank gone slightly senile (which is possibly true) to a cause celebre among people who have too much disosable income and too much time on their hands: white gun toting nuts.
You can’t stand by and watch the NRA saturate its clients with guns, propaganda, and paranoia without figuring that the kids are going to take allt heir toys out to play occasionally. This was nothing more than a theme park experience for these people–they were hoping for a chance to chant “the whole world is watching” while the BLM broke some heads on national TV. And Hannity et al were hoping for the same because: ratings.
bemused
My guess is that Bundy has always been a pugnacious, mule-headed know-it-all. You find old farts like this everywhere although they usually are all tough talk and much too scared to go as far as he has. Dementia questions usually arise when a person has big personality changes and with his long history of fighting with the BLM, I doubt he is acting much different than he always has.
Seriously, how can you tell the difference between a person with dementia turning mean and combative and a far right wingnut?
Joey Maloney
@Alison:
See also: Joe Arpaio.
JPL
CBS Morning News is on and it’s possible that I missed the discussion on Bundy. As I mentioned earlier, he will disappear from the news and most people will not know that he’s the real moocher. I wish there were a way to find out how much money he received from the farm bill.
Botsplainer
@Joey Maloney:
They long for an America where the guys pulling strings look like them while mouthing platitudes designed to placate; where the colored know their place; where law enforcement knows to concentrate effort in “those” neighborhoods while letting the youthful hijinks of white kids from good families slide; where women aren’t snotty.
Mike Toreno
How does a squatter using other people’s land without paying for it blame black people (or anybody else) for “dependency on government assistance?”
Mustang Bobby
@JPL: Fox will call him “colorful,” then move on to the next O-outrage (“He puts mustard on a pretzel!”); CNN will find another missing airliner or white woman, and Mika and Joe will do their Bickersons retrospective over turtleneck sweaters.
Punchy
I fail to see how his comments will be viewed as anything short of genius with 100% of his militia and probably 97.3% of the GOP base in general.
He’s going to get more cheers than jeers for these comments…..
debbie
Earlier this week, Glenn Beck said Bundy had the qualities of a Founding Father. I almost drove off the road.
raven
@bemused: 68 ain’t all that fucking old.
gnomedad
How can Bundy “disappear” unless the Feds essentially surrender to him? He’s still using the land and we have photos of his buddies drawing a bead on Federal officials.
satby
@Botsplainer: Hey now. Make that “like a lot of white folks”. The Irish aren’t normally Mormon.
Waynski
@Botsplainer:
I see, so that would never happen with a fundamentalist, white, Protestant Christian. I’m not saying we don’t have our fair share of bigots, but we’re not all like that. You should meet some other people of Irish heritage. You’re projecting one experience on an entire ethnicity. Go meet an Irish Priest or Nun. My neighbor’s an Irish Catholic Priest and he works at a parish made up almost entirely of African Americans. I don’t practice, but I admire what he does. As for the people you ran into, fock ’em, but that’s not all of us.
Jamey
And for this we thank you, John. You are truly doing the work of angels…
reflectionephemeral
@p.a.:
Yep, entirely true.
‘Course, folks had some help, having their resentment toward the federal government over desegregation being channeled into one of the two major political parties, as has been pointed out around here.
So one of the two parties depends not on getting anything done for (the bulk of) its voters, but rather sharing a negative attitude toward out groups. That worldview’s collateral damage includes the US middle class, and a few hundred thousand Arabs.
sm*t cl*de
@aimai:
That whole “parable of the talents” is a good excuse for taking stuff from other people. Christianism and land-grabbing seem to work well together.
Botsplainer
@satby:
I was referring to Hannity.
There may be a formula – past grievance and historic victimization which precede assimilation can, when conservative religious principles are applied, lead to a real feeling of superiority.
I’ve noted this among my Lebanese cousins. They can be major racists.
Birthmarker
@Mustang Bobby: Elitist effete mustard, not red blooded yellow mustard…
Lurking Canadian
@debbie: this may be too easy, but pro-slavery racist was not an unusual characteristic among the Founding Fathers.
MattF
There’s a view among wingers that they are only saying out loud what everyone is really thinking– the old ‘silent majority’ ploy. It’s very likely that this guy is just continuing to act out his beliefs, and if those beliefs happen to be despicable, well…
Woodrowfan
@Mustang Bobby:
But it was BROWN mustard, proof he hates white people, or something…
J.D. Rhoades
@Betty Cracker: A friend of mine is caring full-time for a wife far gone in early-onset Alzheimer’s. She’s 62.
OzarkHillbilly
@JPL:
That is a very good question and I think there is. I would certainly help pay for the FOIA that would unlock that secret.
@Mike Toreno: He is not dependent on the gov’t if he steals the grass as opposed to having it given to him. Oh, wait a minute, he’s white, every body knows only blacks and lazy Mexicans steal.
Rob Patterson
Here is Kevin Williamson comparing Bundy’s struggle with that of Gandhi (!), Thoreau, and the Founding Fathers. Derp.
J.D. Rhoades
@Scott S.:
Find me a non-racist militia freak and I’ll eat my hat (which is luckily made of chocolate).
Sounds messy.
But seriously, who do you think it is that’s coming for their stuff and their wimmen when civilization collapses? I guarantee you, the faces in that fever dream of theirs are all black and brown.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
That Glen Beck refused to support Bundy should have been the clue to these clowns.
Birthmarker
Aren’t these comments by Bundy exactly what one would expect? Did anyone really expect him to present his biracial grandchild in some kind of “can’t we all just get along? ” moment? What kind of mindset did we expect? Didn’t he say the eclipse was an Obama plot? He’s a victim of the Fox News demographic/propaganda machine. And if he is building their ratings, they will find a way to rewind him.
Tommy
I guy is an asshole. What more do you need?
Botsplainer
@J.D. Rhoades:
Had a divorce case about 10 years ago where the other side was represented by a lawyer who was retired JAG. He was 54, a retired USAF colonel, had kids in high school, and was afflicted with early onset Alzheimer’s. It was heartbreaking – it was his last case. He constantly had to diary every day, and still missed dates and deadlines. Every time I talked to him, he’d break down in tears in apology. My client was going apoplectic, but there was no way in hell I was going to be a dick to the guy. Eventually, we got the case resolved, and of course, he’s since passed away.
Southern Beale
This is my SHOCKED FACE.
/sarcasm
Marc
@Scott S.:
How would you know? Since you will never, ever have to eat it.
debbie
@Enhanced Voting Techniques:
That was only at first. Beck now supports him.
debbie
@Lurking Canadian:
Except that Beck’s comparison had nothing to do with slavery or racism. In his mind, Bundy is standing up to the Federal government the way the Founding Fathers stood up to the British crown.
Betty Cracker
@J.D. Rhoades: That sucks, but my point is, it’s fairly rare for people in their 60s or younger to experience dementia.
Brian R.
@Betty Cracker:
This, a thousand times this.
And it’s not just that he’s been literally stealing government property and making a profit off it for twenty years.
He lives in fucking Nevada, a state where civilization as we know it would not exist without the intervention of the federal fucking government. Where the hell does he think his electricity comes from? Was Hoover Dam built by the fucking free market? Same with the irrigation lines that get water out to him in the middle of the fucking desert.
This asshole insists the federal government doesn’t exist, and it literally created the world he lives in. Fuck him.
different-church-lady
IT’S NOT ABOUT BUNDY! IT’S ABOUT WHAT HE’S REVEALED!
Cassidy
@J.D. Rhoades: I had a “discussion” on an MMA forum where another commenter said something about moving all the law abiding people out of places like Chicago, Oakland, LA, etc. so that the “savages” can’t harm them anymore. I asked him to explain specifically what he meant. Of course he was appalled that I was accusing him of being a bigot, he just meant the “savage” people.
rikyrah
uh huh
uh huh
Sherparick
@Villago Delenda Est: Yes, it is the Great Grift. But really, don’t sell Hannity short on this return to 1860, and making Dixie the model Conservative Utopia. I am afraid a large portion of the 25% would say Moocher Bundy has a point.
Brian R.
@bemused:
Stewart destroyed Hannity last night. Well worth a watch.
Brian R.
@debbie:
Sure he does. He doesn’t think black people are equal to whites either.
debbie
@Villago Delenda Est:
Has Hannity made good on his word and moved out of NYC yet? I think he said he was going to move to North Dakota.
Cassidy
@different-church-lady: My first laugh of the day.
RobertDSC-Power Mac G5 Dual
This.
MomSense
I listened to about 5 minutes of Morning Joe discuss the Bundy comments. They were going on and on about how it was a mistake for Republicans to attach themselves to this guy so quickly and it’s a good thing the comments came out now before more Republicans jumped on board the Bundy train.
Here’s the thing. I’m calling bull shit on their surprise that Bundy is racist or that Republican politicians made a mistake in hitching their wagon to Bundy. Spend 5 minutes on a militia forum and you will figure out pretty quick that racism is foundational. The Republican politicians who don’t say overtly racist things consistently skirt around right at the fringes of it. Rick Frothy Santorum told a bunch of older white folks on the campaign trail that he didn’t want their hard earned dollars going to provide welfare to black people. He tried to skirt back to the not overtly racist side of the line by saying that he really said “blah” people. Uh uh. Sure. When Gingrich talked about Obama being the “food stamp President” he was whistling to somebody. He’s an asshole but he’s not dumb. The Republicans dog whistle statements that are loaded with racist underpinnings while staying just on the not overt racist side of the line–but no one can tell me that they don’t know who the fuck they are talking to.
Call it cynical. Call it evil. It doesn’t matter to me but the reality is plain for anyone to see. The Republican party uses racism to sell their shitty economic policies so they can gain power. They can try and distance themselves all they want but it is total BS.
Sherparick
@Brian R.: I am always wondering why heads are not exploding from the cognitive dissonance that must go on in their heads, but it appears that all they have to do is look in the mirror and “I’m white, I’m cool.” Much like the folks who live in “The Village,” drawing social security and using Medicare, but denouncing “Government Spending.” And the whole North Carolina Republican Party going King Canute on global warming and sea level rise because it interferes with their profit plans for the Outer Banks. http://www.newsobserver.com/2014/03/15/3702235/while-the-seas-rise-science-waits.html
JPL
@MomSense: That was a good rant. Thanks!
Elizabelle
from the NYTimes story linked to in John’s Rawstory link:
A Defiant Rancher Savors the Audience That Rallied to His Side
The press has moved on; Bundy had one reporter and photographer — from the NYTimes, no less — at the Saturday press conference he held, and where he spouted off about “the Negro”:
[A local TV station reported Bundy’s parents only bought the land and started a cattle operation in the 1950s; I’ll put that link up next.]
More from the NYTimes:
States rights, people. And The Negro.
MomSense
@JPL:
Tyrade #5,937!
debbie
@MomSense:
Pity. They already had him lined up as a speaker at their convention.
different-church-lady
@MomSense:
The Village types always think they can put a harness on the crazy and ride it somewhere. They’re perfectly aware that these people are awful and nuts, but they’re so cynical that they believe they’ll be able to use that to their own advantage and not get burned.
different-church-lady
@debbie: But he’s now a lock for a featured spot at CPAC next year.
MomSense
@different-church-lady:
They think this because usually the media cover for them.
satby
@J.D. Rhoades: Yep. And not on mic a lot of them are very clear about it, and how much they look forward to killing a few.
Belafon
@different-church-lady: That’s funny.
lol
Please tell me there’s video.
Trinity
@AxelFoley: This.
jenn
@Sherparick: Ok, who here wants to help me on my long-term project to rehabilitate the reputation of Canute? His whole point was that he *couldn’t* hold back the tide; it was a demonstration of the limits of his power – a humility that North Carolina Republicans do not hold in quantity!
rk
@Alex:
Yes the perfect solution to what big govt has done to black families is of course going back to slavery.
I want to know how many of this man’s 14 kids and numerous grand kids are on or have ever been on welfare.
I’m really pissed off at this guy! Maybe because the last 4-5 yrs have come as a revelation to me as to how prevalent racism and misogyny really is. I’ve been seething inside for days because my teen daughter informed me that anytime she and her friends go out they are always subjected to lewd comments by men (ages ranging from teen boys, young men to middle aged males). A week ago she and a friend were walking and a bunch of teen boys on a school bus yelled horrible stuff at them and also directed racial slurs at my daughter. I have had to take deep breaths to calm myself because I’m really full of rage.
Belafon
@jenn: Sounds like what you might be trying to rehabilitate may itself be a legend: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-13524677.
bemused
@raven:
Hell no, I’m over 60. When I say old fart, I talking about attitude. When people my age turn into get off my lawn cranks, they are old farts.
mirele
Oh, this is absolutely no surprise to me. Bundy’s a follower of the late Cleon Skousen (whose books Glenn Beck promotes, btw). Quoting from Wikipedia’s article on Skousen:
“In 1987, controversy erupted in California when the state briefly considered using Skousen’s book, The Making of America, as a textbook for California schools. Statements in the book regarding slavery, and its use of the term “pickaninny” as a label for slave children engendered a heated debate as to whether the book was appropriate.”
More weirdness at the article…
Anyway, this isn’t the first time we’ve seen Skousen’s influence in American politics. Back in the late 1980s, one of Skousen’s followers, a guy named Ev Mecham, was elected governor of Arizona. Since Skousen was convinced MLK was a commie, so was Mecham and he did away with Arizona’s MLK holiday. As a result, the 1992 Super Bowl was moved from Tempe, AZ to Pasadena, CA. As for Mecham, he ended up being removed from office after slightly more than a year of being one of the crazier American governors.
Yes, folks, that’s what’s lurking behind Cliven Bundy. *shakes head*
raven
@bemused: There ya go.
Elizabelle
From 8 News Now, KLAS-TV in Las Vegas, two days ago:
An abbreviated look at rancher Cliven Bundy’s family history
While Bundy has been telling anyone who would listen that his family traced their water rights back to 1877, records do not bear him out (so far). His parents purchased the ranch in 1948 and began grazing on federal land in 1954. Cliven stopped paying to graze in the 1990s.
The TV station traced Bundy’s maternal grandmother, Christena, to her birth in Nevada in either 1901 or 1891; no earlier records for her family provided.
Other Bundy forebears lived in Illinois, Arizona, and Utah. I believe Bundy’s parents moved from Arizona when they purchased the Bunkerville ranch in 1948.
From an earlier KLAS-TV story:
Do tell. And it would be lovely to see that land go to the Paiutes, if they’re still in the area and interested.
Elizabelle
@rk:
Prezactly. I have a feeling enterprising local reporters might be looking into that now.
ps: sorry to hear what your daughter is going through. Could she video the taunters? Some public shaming might be in order.
If it happens again, maybe those gentlemen do not belong on a school bus, and THEIR families could do some fuming as they drive their yelling kids to and fro.
CONGRATULATIONS!
I love Mr. Bundy now. But only if he keeps talking! We need him to speak and tell ALL of America what he and his kind really believe.
Please proceed, you fucking redneck.
NorthLeft12
This can’t be true! I have heard numerous well respected pundits and politicians from the right and center claim that the Tea Baggers and their fellow travellers [heh, had to use that some time] are not racist and it is only a coincidence that they are 99.87% caucasian and complain about every other race on earth and how they are trying to take over these United States of America.
rk
@Elizabelle:
No it was just a random school bus as they were walking. It’s annoying, but what bothered me much more was that she says guys yell out just random stuff at her and friends. I talked with my neighbors about this (I’m older and an immigrant and assumed that this sort of stuff did not happen much in the US). Well their response was “Yeah she’s a pretty girl and all teen girls and young women go through this”. Of course I experienced it so much myself (almost on a daily basis) in my younger years in a different country. But as I said this was a shock, because it seems some things never fucking change. Same with racism. No idea that it was so much more prevalent.
SFAW
@MomSense:
Change “racism” to “othering” and I think you’ve nailed it. (Yes, I realize there’s a fairly large Venn-like overlap for those two terms.)
SFAW
@raven:
“There ya go.”?
He (she? I can’t remember) is talking about YOU, ya know.
(Kidding of course. And hoping I don’t turn into a Grampy McCrankypants.)
Ksmiami
@CONGRATULATIONS!: some rednecks are nice and not racist.. Bundy a just a fucking bigot asshole. Bring on the black helicopters now
ruemara
@Anne Laurie: please. Stop. He’s no prop, except as a face to rally behind. Just, stop.
Tokyokie
Nobody should be surprised to hear this sort of crap from a hard-core Mormon, whose church didn’t allow full participation by blacks until 1978.
Kevin
Kind of sad that advocating armed insurrection against the federal government because it is enforcing it’s laws isn’t seen as crazy enough.
bemused
@SFAW:
Hey, I wasn’t talking about Raven!
SFAW
@Ksmiami:
Fixed to comport more closely with Saint Cliven the Righteous Moocher’s delicate sensibilities.
SFAW
@bemused:
Yes, I know.
But it was a response dying (not) to be made, so I made it, because Freedumb! (With emphasis on the second syllable.)
Al Swearengen
Also, apparently Deadbeat Bundy has his head so far up his own ass that he thinks that we still pick cotton manually in the year 2014. “Picking cotton”, there’s a job with a future.
Elizabelle
NYTimes reader (and Times Selected commenter) Ecobuilder on the “Defiant Rancher” story:
and the comment immediately below, from “C” in Florida:
and JimBob from Colorado:
Howlin Wolfe
@AxelFoley: There will be a whole lot of non-AA people fighting alongside you.
The Dude
This dickweed-in-denim is only saying aloud what a heck of a lot of white Americans believe. He doesn’t want to pay his grazing fees because he doesn’t want his money going to blacks and other people he feels inherently superior to. That’s the core of every single white tax whiner’s argument, whether they’re on a desolate ranch in Nevada or a suburban sidewalk.
Howlin Wolfe
@Anne Laurie: Hannity’s excuse? Short-term grift overrides principle, conscience, morality and decency.
Bubblegum Tate
@Baud:
Close. Bundy is a Hillary plant whose inflammatory remarks are intended to distract us from Hillary saying that the dead people in Benghazi don’t matter because she hates the military and America, which is a verbatim quote of what she said. Obviously.
Hawes
As “interesting” (and unsurprising) as Bundy’s racism is his idea that being on government assistance is the same as slavery. This gets at the heart of Fundamentalist Reaganism. Government is a de facto evil that is literally comparable to America’s Original Sin. And while Rand Paul can backtrack all he wants from Bundy’s racism, Paul agrees with the basic premise of Bundy’s statement comparing slavery to food stamps.
And sadly, I doubt the media will press on the ideological issue, focusing instead of the easily understood racism.
Elizabelle
@Al Swearengen:
I wonder if Bundy knows any black people. They sure are not in the photos of his supporters ….
Maybe a reporter or cameraman, by now …
(And do check out the NYTimes photo of the 60ish-70ish white couple, asses parked in lawn chairs behind their RV, with a poster of a vulture: “Obamacare makes me sick.” They’re flying an American flag and a POW/MIA flag, too, so I have a feeling at least one of them is eligible for Veterans Administration care, in addition to Medicare.)
Elizabelle
@The Dude:
Meanwhile, he’s being charged less to feed his heavy livestock than we would pay to feed our housepets. (Which is not to say that he is paying even that reduced freight.)
I guess the “other” in Bundyworld is Injuns, Mexicans, and the Negro. Takers and slackers, all.
Interesting to me that the Paiute Indians were cheated out of the land in question in the 1870s, while great great grandpa might have still been living in Denmark.
Seanly
A white male over the age of 60 is saddled with idiotic, racist opinions? And he uses a term that went out of usage 50 years ago? I’m so shocked…
Nice of the Times to keep floating the lie that he’s on some ancestral land…
boatboy_srq
@Anne Laurie: “I’m seeing some twitter-speculation that Bundy is clinically senile, which wouldn’t be a big surprise.”
That sounds awfully convenient. It makes “We’re rational True Conservatives, not like that crazy guy in Nevada that we used to like” an awfully convenient excuse for holding all the b4tsh!t-crazy policy positions without actually telling it like it is the way Bundy’s been doing.
Patricia Kayden
So shocking to find out that an anti-government, White moocher is racist!
The government needs to continue to press Bundy for what he owes them. There is no way in hell that Black Americans could get away with violently opposing government agents. This is White privilege writ large.
jonas
@debbie: That’s odd, because my impression was that Beck has been pretty critical of this guy and his militia nut supporters.
Central Planning
So… does he also not recognize the 2nd Amendment? Would it then be OK for Nevada to take his guns?
Patrick
@Patricia Kayden:
Yes, I don’t understand how this could possibly stand. And this is not only white folks privilege; I am white. Why should I have to fees to the government if this Bundy doesn’t have to?
Bill D.
@Aqualad08: Obscure usage to most of us, but those young cattle are “dogies” (dough-ghees”) not doggies. Not that there might not be some cattle doggies running around barking as well. This is a case where spelling really does matter.
GregB
By the way, has anyone put two and two together and figured out why these militia moochers weren’t at work instead of engaging in well-armed Klan-stock?
Were they collecting unemployment while at the protest?
Frankensteinbeck
@jonas:
He has. Beck has been on both sides of the same issue a lot recently. I’m starting to wonder if HE is senile.
SectarianSofa
So, yeah, Harry Reid is still right about this clown and his supporters.
mai naem
Jon Stewart ripped Sean Hannity a new one on last night’s show. I almost felt bad for Hannity when Stewart was done. These people just never learn. You don’t respond to Jon Stewart’s pieces unless you want him to make a bigger fool out of you. I think Colbert has kept Stewart on his feet, even more, since Colbert was named as Letterman’s replacement.
SectarianSofa
@mai naem:
Saw the clip on the web … was a beautiful thing. Though Hannity and his caveman clan will shrug and bluster on.
Kevin
@mai naem: No need to feel sorry for Hannity. His viewers don’t even know who Stewart is, and would certainly not feel that Stewart got the best of him. Fox viewers are old white people. The kind of people with Cliven Bundy actually. So it makes sense that he feels no shame.
bemused
@SFAW:
Yeah, I got that. Just being prudent.There have been scuffles here before that seemed to start out of nowhere…..
Mike in NC
If he were so inclined, there’s little doubt Bundy could be elected governor or US senator in Nevada.
SFAW
I’m thinking of pitching (to the TV production gods) an idea for a new political/pundit/Crossfire/shouty show called “TSM/X,” starring Louie Gohmert, Sean Hannity, and Jim Hoft, with guest appearances by luminaries such as Douglas Feith, Sarah Palin, and so forth.
It would probably be best suited to air on Fox.
The “TSM,” of course, stands for “The Stupidest Man,” and the “X” is the all-purpose placeholder for modifiers such as “in Congress,” “on TV,” “on the Internet,” and so forth. I think the ratings would be sky-high. Plus, it would have the added benefit of, when they have their gala Anniversary show, with all their former guests showing up, the over-the-top stupidity would suck all the oxygen out of the room, and they’d all suffocate. (I was going to say something about brain death, but they all reached that state a long time ago.)
SFAW
@bemused:
What the hell do you mean by that? You and me, pal, outside in 5 minutes!
PS – If I don’t show up on time, start without me.
Villago Delenda Est
@Frankensteinbeck: NOT supporting the Bundy parasite was costing Beck ratings points/clicks.
He had to reverse that.
Beck is irredeemable grifting scum. No quarter for the likes of him.
Chris
@Alex:
No, not odd at all for anyone who’s heard you guys bleat about “government overreach” long enough to understand what it actually means (help for people in the inner cities who just happen to be black).
You know, MOST of us aren’t media trained to express ourselves perfectly, and STILL we manage to avoid obscenities like “hey, slavery was totally better than job relief for these black people.” Some of us even know people who are the same age or older than this rancher and yet who STILL manage not to sink into that kind of bullshit, despite the “oh, you younguns don’t understand, EVERYONE was racist back then” thing you guys love to hide behind.
That minority outreach you guys are always talking about? Here’s a small first step you can take. Forget the “but but we’re the Party of Lincoln!” babbling that no one who can see the Confederate flag on your car has ever believed. Forget having a black man deliver your message as if black people were too stupid to understand it the first five hundred times when it came from a white guy. And once, just once, just ONE SINGLE TIME in your entire fucking misspent lives, try having a reaction to a white racist that’s SOMETHING other than excusing and/or covering for him.
SFAW
@Chris:
Thanks, that was excellent.
bemused
@SFAW:
I might be a little late too, got two litterboxes to clean.
Howlin Wolfe
@Botsplainer: He’s a pet ape with an Irish surname.
SFAW
@bemused:
Next you’ll be telling me you gotta “floss the cat.”
Bobby Thomson
@Botsplainer:
Fuck you very much.
ETA: ” I declined to assist the little bro of a guy I worked with over this. He was a huge guy who picketed abortion clinics, prayed in Latin and screamed “slut” and “whore” at young women entering, but when he was wanting to adopt, wanted only a white baby and would consider nothing else, no birth defects or kids with any color. I called him on it.” So in other words, you draw a sweeping generalization based on a sample size of one. Fuck you.
bartcopfan
@Reflectionephemeral: Actually, I’d argue that Lee Atwater (a man who should know) disagrees w/ you….
Ksmiami
@SFAW: it’s just come to the point where to be a republican is to be a no good very bad person
Central Planning
@SFAW:
Shouldn’t that be un-floss or de-floss the cat?
Or I’m totally not understanding what you mean. I was thinking more along the lines of tinsel.
StringOnAStick
Elsewhere I’ve seen people saying that Hannity will now rapidly back away from Bundy, just drop the story. I don’t think so; Hannity has lots of people watching him now just because of this story and if he backs off then he’ll be tarred as having acquiesced to ‘those people’. He can’t be seen as backing down or giving in to “racial entitlement”, that’s what this whole fussfest has devolved into. Toss in his rising to Jon Stewart’s bait and Stewart letting him have it again, and his overinflated sense of self importance won’t let him back down. Please proceed, idiot.
SFAW
@Central Planning:
Me either.
SFAW
@StringOnAStick:
He’s already given in to that. Perhaps you meant “black entitlement”?
Because white entitlement is the Natural Order of Things in the Universe, so he wouldn’t be “giving in” to it.
Jebediah, RBG
@Patricia Kayden:
Writ fucking huge, since often AA’s are lucky to escape with their lives if they look sideways at a cop.
LAC
@ruemara: I know. Really could not believe her post.
He seemed perfectly comfortable spouting his vile views, Alzheimer’s or not.
Stick to gardening, for Jesus sakes.
Mom sense- bravo!!!
Howlin Wolfe
@sm*t cl*de: Also, doesn’t work against land owned by the US Government, if it even ever works between private owners. You don’t claim land from the sovereign without the sovereign’s consent.
LAC
@Chris: amen! To give this asshole any cover is vile. What hell is going to make us stop dithering about the state of his mind? His arm stretched out going Seig heil?
Paul in KY
@Anne Laurie: Always liked that great old SNL skit of Ronnie acting all doofesy & then when cameras are turned off he’s barking orders & speaking Farsi to operatives, etc.
Sorta like the Carter one where he talks down some citizen who got ahold of some bad acid.
Paul in KY
@debbie: I would advise you not to listen to Glen Beck.
Paul in KY
@The Dude: Think you are correct.
Paul in KY
@Mike in NC: I’m not so sure. Nevada has a strong Democratic presence in Las Vegas/Reno. Se. Reid beat a person about as crazy as him.
Chris
@LAC:
To be honest, at this point I kinda think not even the “Sieg Heil” would be enough. It would just make them go off on a rant about how while the Sieg Heiling might be vile, why won’t liberals denounce BLACK racism? Etc.
(No, I am not being too cynical).
LAC
@Chris: no you are not, sadly.
Chris
Apropos of something I missed farther up –
@Anne Laurie:
Again, this is why I’m really, really looking forward to Perlstein sinking his teeth into the Reagan era (the book he’s working on now is about his earlier years, not his presidency, I believe, but I imagine he’ll eventually get to the eighties too). The story of Reagan’s rise is the story of the rise of modern conservatism and all the things that dominate our politics to this day, and yet the man really was pretty much an empty suit channeling other people’s ideas. What I’m really interested in hearing about is who these “other people” were, what they did, etc.
Robert Waldmann
“I’m going to be forced to go through the Reason archives looking for complimentary pieces on Bundy by Welch, Gillespie, Sullum, and crew, aren’t I? ” Oh no not at all. You’ve already done enough, read enough stupid nonsense for the cause, suffered enough. I couldn-t aks you to read Gillespie. I’ll read uh at least skim um
OK you’re on you own. Don’t feel obliged to read “Reason” but don’t dream of hoping that I will read “Reason”. I-m willing to make sacrifices for the cause of truth, justice, and the American way within reason, but not within “Reason”.
debbie
@Paul in KY: Like they say, know thy enemy.
Procopius
@Alex: I really liked that line, “…old man rancher who isn’t media-trained to perfectly express himself.” Yeah, he was a little ungrammatical.
Procopius
@Central Planning:
I think he was thinking more along the lines, “I gotta shampoo the hamster,” or maybe, “I’ve gotta cut my toenails.” Something far more important.