by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist
As of a week ago more than three hundred people had been arrested in connection with the Capitol insurrection of January 6th, and it looks as though there will be plenty more to follow as those taken into custody quickly rat out their friends and co-rioters in an attempt to curry favor with the government they once fantasized about overthrowing. And while the ranks of those taken into custody form a crazy quilt of colorful characters, a few stand out: the Arkansas hillbilly who posed with his feet on Nancy Pelosi's desk and then whined about being kept in a cell like a common criminal, the horned, tattooed, and painted shaman who demanded (and got) vegan meals while in the hoosegow, the princeling who requested to be released to the supervision of his parents - the same parents who had driven the get-away car as he fled the Capitol, and the Texas woman who asked the judge to release her from jail so she could go on a vacation that she already had planned before trying to overthrow the government.
Poor babies, one and all.
So many characters, so many tales still to be told - and yet, quite oddly, so far no representatives of modern America's premier insurrectionist family - the Bundys of Nevada, Arizona, and Idaho - have been linked to the treason that took place at the US Capitol. Perhaps the Bundys were too busy with their own causes to participate in the insanity fest that descended on Washington, DC, on January 6th.
The Bundy family first came to national attention in 2014 when the patriarch, Cliven Bundy, a Nevada rancher who had for years been grazing his cattle on US government land while refusing to pay grazing fees, became involved in an armed standoff with the government when federal agents began rounding up his cattle. Seven years later that case is still bouncing around the courts
Then Cliven's son, Ammon Bundy, and others seized control of a federal game reserve in Oregon in 2016 which they managed to hold for several weeks. Ultimately one member of the group was shot and killed at a traffic stop by government agents, and the protesters were dislodged. Some government errors in that case resulted in it being dismissed and charges dropped.
And now Ammon is in the news again.
Last year Ammon Bundy was arrested at the Idaho statehouse when he showed up to protest government measures to control the pandemic. He was scheduled to appear in court yesterday to stand trial on charges resulting from that protest and arrest, but as Bundy tried to enter the courthouse in Boise he was stopped for not wearing a mask. (Another danged government measure to control the pandemic!) After being told that masks were required for entry, he declined to put one on - and was denied entry into the building. The judge inside of the building responded by charging Ammon Bundy for "failure to appear," and he was promptly arrested and carted off to the local pokey. Bond was set at $10,000.
The Bundys probably see themselves as standing up to an overreaching government, a government that they fail to recognize as being legitimate, while others view them as outliers of society who regard themselves as being above the law. Whatever their motivations, the Bundys are undoubtedly serving as an inspiration to other would-be "freedom fighters" who see some romantic glory in trying to bring down the government that protects them and provides them with the basic right of protest.
But there is a difference between peaceful protest and outright anarchy, and a nation without government and laws would be a nation without safeguards for basic human rights - and a very dangerous place to live.
If any of the Bundys move into my neighborhood, I hope that it's Al and Peg. Them I could tolerate!
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