Why are you people trying to start a war that no one will win?

[DirkGently]

39. Women as human shields wasn't a "story."

It was a plan.

http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2014/04/15/3426702/militant-former-sheriff-planned-to-put-women-up-at-the-front-if-violence-erupted-in-ranch-showdown-with-feds/

But some allies of rancher Cliven Bundy were prepared to make as much of a media spectacle as possible if violence were to erupt, saying they would put women on the front lines in the event federal officials turned to deadly force. Former Arizona Sheriff Richard Mack told Fox News Monday, as reported by the Blaze:

We were actually strategizing to put all the women up at the front. If they are going to start shooting, it’s going to be women that are going to be televised all across the world getting shot by these rogue federal officers.

Mack, a self-professed Tea Partier, is one of a host of right-wing figures who stood behind Bundy and made him a conservative celebrity after he refused to pay grazing fees based on his claim that the federal government is not entitled to own land.

So yes, there are craven cowards there, however honestly a few of these rifle-toting loons think threatening federal agents with murder over confiscation of a fistful of illegally grazing cattle is somehow a just cause. These are sick people with a demented mindset. They say they are for freedom and America, but to them that means freedom to threaten to kill anyone requiring them to hold up their end of the social contract that makes this a country in the first place. It's a stupider, more violent version of the entitled economic elites who likewise think the rest of us owe them something because of who they are.

I hope no one here is hoping for bloodshed. I haven't seen that, myself. These dangerous goofs should be arrested for the crimes they have committed.

But no, it wouldn't be a "civil war." The public at large would not bat a particularly concerned eye if one of these yahoos drawing down on law enforcement from the comfort of an overpass were shot dead on the spot. No one wants it, but they're the ones who think that's a winning scenario for them. Thus the nutty fantasy about getting the cops to shoot women. Straight from the Taliban playbook, let us note.

These are disturbed extremists, while we all -- save for elements of Fox News and Alex Jones -- hope their visions of a destructive confrontation never take place, they would lose promptly and decisively. No one thinks they aren't dangerous, but neither are they the vanguard of some great wave of powerful rightwing unrest.

If they were ever to get the faintest taste of the reality they think they are prepared for, all the toy soldiering in the forest and all fascist regalia and tactical gear, all the fancy black rifles in the world won't help them, because the country is not, and never will be, on their side.