Pandemic Resistance Gives Ammon Bundy A Platform To Build Secretive Far- Right Theocratic Army

[appalachiablue]

Last edited Sun Oct 18, 2020, 01:01 AM - Edit history (1)

- Ammon Bundy, ctr, Idaho Statehouse, Boise, Aug. 24, 2020 attends a special session of the ID legislature called due to the coronavirus pandemic. Bundy has used protests against COVID-19 health measures to organize a 'People's Network' focused on intimidating public officials. He led the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge occupation in Oregon in 2016.

- 'Under the guise of defending ‘rights,’ Ammon Bundy is building a far-right theocratic army.'- Daily Kos, 10/17/20.

There’s been a buffoonish quality to Ammon Bundy’s brand of far-right “constitutionalist” politics over the past six months, primarily organized in a typically paranoid response to COVID-19-related public-health measures: Protesting at the home of a police officer who had arrested an anti-vaccination fanatic for violating the closure of a playground. Trying to bully his way inside a health-board meeting. Getting arrested twice in two days for ignoring his ban from the Idaho Statehouse. Going maskless at a Caldwell High School football game that forced the game to be called off, for which he was not only ejected but banned from future games by the local school district.

The endless antics, however, have always obfuscated a darker, much more dangerous agenda. A disturbing new in-depth report by Devin Burghart at the Institute for Research and Education on Human Rights reveals that all the time that Bundy has been gathering media time and headlines, he’s been building a massive army of volunteers—a network called People’s Rights—intent on imposing a far-right authoritarian state, all under the guise of defending individual rights.

Bundy first announced the formation of the People’s Rights network in March, when he held a gathering not far from his home in Emmett, Idaho, discussing plans to organize people to form ad-hoc gatherings to “defend” local citizens against COVID-19-related “tyranny.” Bundy told the audience that they didn’t need to obey the governor’s stray-at-home or business-closure orders. And he pledged to bring fellow “Patriots” to the rescue if anyone felt pressure from “authorities” to comply.

“I will be there,” Bundy told the Idaho Press. “I will bring as many people as we can. We will form a legal defense for you, a political defense for you, and we will also, if necessary, provide a physical defense for you, so that you can continue in your rights.” As it has played out on the ground, these gatherings have become bellicose, and frequently armed, mobs protesting police officers at their homes, breaking into health-board meetings that were being held online, and breaking down the doors inside the Statehouse and attending committee meetings unmasked in order to intimidate state legislators...

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2020/10/16/1987144/-Pandemic-resistance-gives-Ammon-Bundy-a-platform-to-build-secretive-far-right-theocratic-army
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- 'Ammon Bundy and allies build dangerous network of militia members, report says,' Oregon Live, Oct. 14, 2020,
https://www.oregonlive.com/pacific-northwest-news/2020/10/ammon-bundy-and-allies-build-dangerous-network-of-militia-members-report-says.html

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Oregon refuge occupation leader Ammon Bundy and his allies have exploited COVID-19 fears to build a dangerous network of militia members and other far-right factions, according to a new report by two groups that track extremism. Bundy, who led a 41-day occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in eastern Oregon in 2016, began building the People’s Rights network in March, says the report by the Institute for Research and Education on Human Rights and the Montana Human Rights Network.

Since then, the report says, the network has rapidly grown to more than 20,000 members across the country.
Bundy rose to prominence in the so-called “patriot” movement after leading an armed standoff in 2014 at his father’s ranch in Nevada. He and his father, Cliven Bundy, faced federal charges following the confrontation over land grazing fees. The case was dismissed in 2018.. The network, which the report refers to as “Ammon’s Army,” includes militia members, anti-maskers, conspiracy theorists, preppers and anti-vaccination activists.

Its rapid growth has been boosted by the joining of Bundy’s far-right paramilitary supporters cultivated from armed standoffs over the years with a large base of new activists radicalized through protests over COVID-19 health directives, the report says...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ammon_Bundy

[dem4decades]

1. Give the state to them, no more Senators, give 2 to D.C..

[appalachiablue]

4. Interesting proposal, we'll see if and as the wackos replicate..

The Oregon Live article above notes the network has 20,000 members

[elias7]

2. these people are morons with no sense of what it takes to do anything 21st century

[Thekaspervote]

8. Yup! Anyone but remember after he and his thugs took over a government blg how they were

All going to hold out or die trying....in 3-4 days they were whining about not having any toilet paper

[underpants]

3. Interesting

Started in March? I guess he was ready for this.

[appalachiablue]

5. Maybe he got the word as an insider, so to speak

[2naSalit]

6. He's been salivating for a chance to start...

An insurrectionist war. He moved to Idaho a year or two ago because there are more imbeciles to influence there, especially if he goes to church.

[bdtrppr6]

7. these f*cks

were given clearance to fuck around at will when they were allowed to just go home.

same treatment as the proud boys

white supremacist? no problem

BLM? we'll beat your ass and put you in jail, if not kill you outright

[Crowman2009]

9. Another glaring example of white privilege.

Had they been born with a darker shade of skin color, they would be dead by now.

[erpowers]

10. Ammon Bundy is Beginning to Remind Me of the Cult Leader From "The Following"

In 2013 Fox Television premiered a show called The Following. The show stared Kevin Bacon as an FBI agent and James Purefoy as a Serial Killer. Bacon's character was trying recapture Purefoy's character, who had escaped from prison. At some point during the series, Purefoy's character met a foolish cult leader. Purefoy's character manipulated the cult leader until the cult leader was no longer useful.