Horking Delight posted:

If someone gave me food late at night I'd thank them gratefully and talk about how much I appreciated it and how delicious it was. I wouldn't say it was "very needed" or that I was "very hungry".

Lyapunov Unstable posted:

sounds like 1-2 weeks depending on the size of the "bags" and how theyre rationing (theyre probably already out of food)

Astrofig posted:

That's assuming they know how to cook---most of it is easy poo poo that a middleschooler could make like mac and cheese, ramen cups, canned soup----the gently caress are they going to do with bags of raw flour, uncooked oats and raw potatoes? Did they think to bring a camp stove? (And fuel for it?)

saintonan posted:

Given the amount of media interest in a bunch of unprepared morons squatting in an abandoned building in the middle of nowhere, there's no chance any arrest anywhere for any reason could be done quietly.

Soylent Yellow posted:

If there's likely to be any kind of violence over this, the most probable cause is a gunfight over the last can of baked beans.

Astrofig posted:

Bundy denied he was being hypocritical about the loan because it "was an effort in assisting the people in using their rights."

Tin Gang posted:

My meaning was that the government response should be low-key. Who gives a poo poo what the media does?

Main Paineframe posted:

If not, they could just go out and pick one up. It's not like they're blockaded in or anything - they're still able to enter and leave freely.

quote:

Yet as the militia prepared for their fourth night on Tuesday, a tense energy infused the surrounding community, where federal agents set up office in the local school district headquarters and held courthouse meetings with US prosecutors and others on how to solve the lingering occupation.

Harney County sheriff David M Ward told reporters the FBI was pursuing trespassing charges against the protesters and implored residents not to offer militia members as much as “a Snickers bar”.

Despite that request, and after seemingly arriving with fewer supplies than might have been expected, it appears the militia are well-stocked and preparing for a long, cold winter.

Earlier on Tuesday, the sun still rising over the refuge with the thermometer still frozen in the high teens, it was toasty warm inside the large bunkhouse kitchen, where a small crew was serving a breakfast of biscuits and gravy, bacon, coffee and orange juice.

Six lumbering men sat around a TV in an adjacent lounge room, jeering at a Fox News TV report on their standoff. They insisted that a federal government plan to cut power only steeled their resolve. They have enough propane and generators, they said, to last the winter.

Neil Wampler, a 68-year-old retired woodworker from central California, had been awake since 4am to help cook breakfast.After answering an internet call for support by the Bundy family, he said, he planned to stay here to the end.

“These are excellent conditions compared to other standoffs I’ve taken part in,” said Wampler, whose wool cap bore the slogan “State of Jefferson”, signifying a move for northern California and southern Oregon to secede and create a new state.

Wampler, who joined Bundy’s 2014 armed standoff with BLM officials at the ranch outside Las Vegas, said the wildlife refuge offers hot showers, comfortable beds and, on Monday night, a spaghetti and sausage dinner with a vegetable salad and homemade biscuits.

“Man, that dinner was good,” he said. “When I was at the Bundy ranch, we lit a fire on a propane stove in an outdoor shed and washed our dishes in a ditch. But I could get used to this.”

Late Monday, Wampler said, ranchers arrived with enough meat to fill four industrial refrigerators, replenishing the group’s diminishing supplies. The next morning, Wampler walked the compound, past heavy machinery and US Fish and Wildlife signs reading “Carp Haven” and “Coyote Hollow” and wondered why more militia members hadn’t flocked to southern Oregon as they did to the Bundy ranch in 2014.

Maybe it was the cold weather, he surmised, watching smoke from lit hearth fires rise above the buildings.

Moments later, a militia member drove past in a federal government truck with a US Fish and Wildlife Service insignia on the side.

Wampler smiled: “We found some keys lying around.”

Their standoff at the wildlife refuge is getting a very different response 30 miles away, in Burns, where townsfolk feel under siege.

Half of the 5,000 residents in the rural town work jobs with the local, state or federal government. Ammon Bundy and his associates spent weeks in the lead-up to the occupation wandering around the town, attempting to rally support for their hardline cause.

“Listen, the potential of violence is on everyone’s mind here,” said Burns’s mayor, Craig LaFollette. “We want this to end peacefully. But even without violence, these outsiders have disrupted our lives here, closed our schools. It’s time for these people to leave.”

Amid growing concern about the fallout from the armed occupation, various town leaders held a crisis meeting with federal authorities on Tuesday.

“An ongoing siege could break a county like this one,” said Randy Fulton, one of the attendees of the closed-door gathering. “Nobody wants this to continue.”

Fulton, 60, a lifelong Burns resident and a leading businessman who owns the town’s weekly newspaper, the Burns Times-Herald, said the standoff is hurting his town.

As legions of federal law enforcement officials arrive here – one hotel manager said 40 of 114 rooms are rented by federal officials – local businessmen worry the emerging battle lines will discourage visitors and keep workers at home.

Locals at the meeting demanded to know why federal officials are allowing the militia to come into town to restock supplies. Officials assured them they were handling the standoff and that law enforcement personnel from 35 other Oregon counties had offered backup. Yet it remains unclear what the army of federal and local officials will do.

Fulton also said a plan to turn off power at the site, first reported by the Guardian, had run into snags. Local power officials at the meeting said the move would also cut power to several surrounding ranches and that the only way to isolate the wildlife refuge would be to send men to the site to cut the local lines.

“Nobody wants to take the first shot on this Bundy bunch,” he said. “The federal guys say these characters include some pretty bad people, along with the usual sheep-like followers and media magnets.” He added that the local sheriff has received numerous threats of violence.

The motley crew of constitutionalists, ranchers and rightwing zealots who have descended on the refuge include, for example, a notorious anti-Islam activist who is on the radar of the FBI.

“Still,” Fulton said, “I don’t know if this is the time to go in there with guns blazing.”

Already, undercover agents are almost certainly prowling the streets of Burns. In a barely concealed hint, federal officials warned those at Tuesday’s meeting they might see outsiders who look “a little odd” but that it didn’t mean they were “a bad guy”.

“The commander said some of his guys don’t look like government agents,” Fulton added.

Yet it is hard to tell who any of the so-called protesters are.

The Bundy brothers arrived weeks ago to organize a movement in support of father-and-son ranchers Dwight and Steven Hammond, who were set to return to prison on federal arson charges.

It culminated in Saturday’s rally – the prelude to their occupation, which has quickly spiraled into a set of political grievances much wider than the plight of two local ranchers.

The protest on Saturday attracted 325 participants, but only two dozen were local residents, Fulton said.

“We counted them,” he said. “Most of the people held up signs supporting the Hammonds. Nobody expressed anything about dismantling the federal government.”

But a lack of local support does not appear to be discouraging the militia members at the refuge, who insist they’re feeling a renewed sense of camaraderie.

After sitting alone at a computer screen, reading the screeds of others in their cause, these men who refer to themselves as “patriots” relish this gathering of like minds.

On Tuesday, the bunkhouse breakfast room felt like a hunting lodge, with wives and girlfriends serving meals while working-class men with beards, flannel shirts and dour expressions milled about.

Some, like a man who gave his name as Jason Patrick, were wild-eyed about their military-style occupation. “There’s a rifle pointing from every blade of grass,” he said.

Others were more practical. Michael Stettler, a 49-year-old electrician who arrived on Monday from a nearby county, said he wasn’t “ready to take a bullet”. “If the federals move in and offer a chance to leave, I’m leaving,” he said.

However the occupation ends, protesters will be respectful, Stettler said, and plan to leave the refuge like they found it. His bunk room held personal items of the government worker who lived there. “I opened a closet and saw medical stuff and clothes and I said ‘Whoa!’ and closed the door. I’m not opening it again. My stuff is stashed in a corner.”

quote:

“These are excellent conditions compared to other standoffs I’ve taken part in,” said Wampler

Grand Fromage posted:

Grand Fromage posted:

Astrofig posted:

Apparently the government is only bad when it's making you play by the rules, NOT when it's providing half a million dollars to your 'small business':

http://www.cnn.com/2016/01/05/us/oregon-wildlife-refuge-armed-protest/

Main Paineframe posted:

They're just talking up any morsels of food given to them by anyone as proof of their popular support locally or nationwide, and are therefore vastly exaggerating their need. It's a lot harder to brag about "we're so supported by the community that someone gave us some soup" if you're saying you don't need food because you're so well-prepared. By claiming to be on the brink of starvation and super grateful for every bite, they're more likely to get basic charity from people, which they can then turn around as evidence of how much people support their cause.

Talmonis posted:

It's sad to see that most of the country, including the Federal government and many of this forums leftists, are so terrified of offending the right wing that they practically sprint to appease armed mobs on the sole aspect of their political orientation.

Main Paineframe posted:

http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/jan/05/tension-grows-as-militia-prepares-for-fourth-night-in-oregon-standoff

FCKGW posted:

They need to be sent some sweet Big Dogs tees IMO

Vienna Circlejerk posted:

The Guardian is the same paper that said these guys had about two weeks worth of food if you count the bag of pretzels and the granola bar, so I'm a little confused by this latest report.

Vienna Circlejerk posted:

The Guardian is the same paper that said these guys had about two weeks worth of food if you count the bag of pretzels and the granola bar, so I'm a little confused by this latest report.

Vienna Circlejerk posted:

The Guardian is the same paper that said these guys had about two weeks worth of food if you count the bag of pretzels and the granola bar, so I'm a little confused by this latest report.

http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/jan/05/tension-grows-as-militia-prepares-for-fourth-night-in-oregon-standoff posted:

Late Monday, Wampler said, ranchers arrived with enough meat to fill four industrial refrigerators, replenishing the group’s diminishing supplies. The next morning, Wampler walked the compound, past heavy machinery and US Fish and Wildlife signs reading “Carp Haven” and “Coyote Hollow” and wondered why more militia members hadn’t flocked to southern Oregon as they did to the Bundy ranch in 2014.

...


Locals at the meeting demanded to know why federal officials are allowing the militia to come into town to restock supplies. Officials assured them they were handling the standoff and that law enforcement personnel from 35 other Oregon counties had offered backup. Yet it remains unclear what the army of federal and local officials will do.

Fulton also said a plan to turn off power at the site, first reported by the Guardian, had run into snags. Local power officials at the meeting said the move would also cut power to several surrounding ranches and that the only way to isolate the wildlife refuge would be to send men to the site to cut the local lines.

quote:

Others were more practical. Michael Stettler, a 49-year-old electrician who arrived on Monday from a nearby county, said he wasn’t “ready to take a bullet”. “If the federals move in and offer a chance to leave, I’m leaving,” he said.

quote:

Another man from Utah who took part in the Bundy standoff told Oregon Public Broadcasting that he was miffed by how few protesters showed up. “I feel quite betrayed. It’s been on Facebook that everyone is going to come. And we show up, and everyone just craps out,” he said. “You come up here, ready to get killed if we have to and these people are just on Facebook about it."

the trump tutelage posted:

There's lots of reasons to hate these guys without resorting to the left wing equivalent of "Well how come the OWS protesters have MacBooks and Starbucks "

Astrofig posted:

Apparently the government is only bad when it's making you play by the rules, NOT when it's providing half a million dollars to your 'small business':

http://www.cnn.com/2016/01/05/us/oregon-wildlife-refuge-armed-protest/

Vienna Circlejerk posted:

The Guardian is the same paper that said these guys had about two weeks worth of food if you count the bag of pretzels and the granola bar, so I'm a little confused by this latest report.

OxySnake posted:

Bottles of Malort. All the alcohol they can't drink.

Volkerball posted:

Y'all are really drawing a lot of conclusions about a normal thing to say thanking someone for giving you food.

Main Paineframe posted:

http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/jan/05/tension-grows-as-militia-prepares-for-fourth-night-in-oregon-standoff
Locals at the meeting demanded to know why federal officials are allowing the militia to come into town to restock supplies.

SocketWrench posted:

Well why aren't those local suppliers not just refusing sales?

SocketWrench posted:

Well why aren't those local suppliers not just refusing sales?

quote:

Ken Scott

It is very important to know that the lien filed in Mesa Colorado must be answered Jan 15th 2016, this lien will in effect remove the conviction of the Hammond's and millions of others wrongfully imprisoned, hold this till the lien defaults.
wondering how long and what it is going to take before everyone realizes that the "federal" government is a foreign corporation, run by the IMF, which is UN agency, doing business as the "UNITED STATES"?? How long before everyone realizes that this foreign, for-profit "thing from Puerto Rico" is a criminal syndicate, operated by criminals, for criminals, by criminals?
MESSAGE SENT TO HOUSE OVERSIGHT SUBCOMMITTEE IN RE: OREGON OCCUPATION/BLM/FBI— 1:46 AM AST, January 4, 2016—-
The BLM and FBI are called “government agencies” but are nothing but subcontractors working in behalf of other “governmental services corporations” fronted by international banking cartels. Right now you fellows are going through a changing of the guards while you attempt to pull off yet another institutionalized fraud scheme in which you fail to inform birthright American State Citizens of your undisclosed activities designed to entrap them, copyright their given names, roll over their estates into Cestui Que Vie Trusts and Public Transmitting Utilities and defraud them the rest of their lives while you feed off of them and their labor like parasites.
Right now, your “agencies” have “presumed” to act against your employers and benefactors again.
Be advised that your activities are being closely monitored by other governments and international agencies around the world. Be advised that the Hammonds and the Bundys have clearly and repeatedly Self-Declared their actual political status and that the ONLY purpose for the EXISTENCE of the “Bureau of Land Management” or the “Federal Bureau of Investigations” is to provide these “free sovereign and independent people of the United States” (Definitive Treaty of Peace, Article 3) with “essential governmental services” (Constitution, Article IV, Section 3, Clause 2).
Those “essential governmental services” do not include mischaracterization, fraud, racketeering, threats, false claims, identity theft, or any other action detrimental to them and their interests. The ONLY reason for this government or any other to exist is the protection of the people and their material assets.
We have had enough of your Bully Boy tactics and your provocations and your false arrests and your false charges under conditions of personage and barratry. We have had enough of your criminality and lack of regard for the Public Law and the only equity contract allowing your presence on this Continent.
The federal corporations are no better nor of any different character than any commercial corporations in the world. If McDonald’s and Target cannot ram around using commercial mercenary armies to terrify the populace, neither can you.
We are establishing a commercial lien for damages of $100 billion United States Dollars (USD) defined as one ounce of fine silver for the loss of any one Oregon State Citizen murdered by any federal corporation employee, mercenary, subcontractor, agent or ally, with an additional $100 billion (USD) to be paid directly as compensation to their families.
The Oregon State will be bringing war crimes charges against the “DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE” before the World Court if even one American is harmed by the FBI and more charges will be brought against the BLM.
Consider this your First Public Notice of these facts and of the pending Commercial Lien Obligation.
http://www.annavonreitz.com/commerciallien.pdf
PRINT THIS LIEN OUT ... SHARE WITH WITH EVERYONE ON THE GROUND ... THIS LIEN IS TO SHUT DOWN ALL SUB GOVERNMENTAL SERVICES LIKE BLM ... THIS ALL GOES TOGETHER.

zeal posted:

I sort of get why the locals or the feds decided not to post people on the roads into the refuge, but surely they could've guessed that leaving the militiamen free to move as they please means they'll bring in more people and supplies