Wife Of Convicted Rancher: I Don’t Get ‘Purpose’ Of Militia Occupying Refuge

[MohRokTah]

I'd be willing to bet she isn't very familiar with Mormonism, especially the radical form of it practiced by the Bundys:

Wife Of Convicted Rancher: I Don’t Get ‘Purpose’ Of Militia Occupying Refuge

The wife of Oregon rancher Dwight Hammond, whose imprisonment for arson inspired militia men to seize control of a wildlife refuge, said Sunday she doesn’t really understand what the armed men are looking to accomplish.

Dwight Hammond and his son, Steven, are scheduled to report for four-year prison sentences Monday over 2012 convictions for burning public lands. Dozens of self-styled patriots have rushed to take up their cause, converging on rural Oregon for a showdown with the federal government.

“I don’t really know the purpose of the guys who are out there,” Susan Hammond told Oregon Public Broadcasting. “I kind of understand where they come from, as far as their priorities in life.”

She laughed when asked about the ongoing occupation, and said she was surprised by the militias’ protest.

,,,

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/dwight-hammond-ammon-bundy-oregon?utm_content=buffer8e39f&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer

[Baitball Blogger]

1. This is a wake-up call for her.

She is being used by people who are anarchists. They have tapped into the right-wing anti-government sentiment and have exploited it to its natural end.

[RKP5637]

7. Exactly, they don't give a damn about the Hammonds. These jerks are simply using

them as tools to advance their agenda. More and more people are seeing what they are about, basically, right-wing anti-government sentiment and exploitation of the Hammonds for their agenda. And they want public lands for their personal profit. They are grifters of public lands.

[Johonny]

2. Priorities in life: Take advantage of government for profit, hate government when it wants the fee

[gratuitous]

3. The purpose? It's really rather simple

Check in with your local three-year-old in the toy aisle at Target being told he can't have the latest, greatest Star Wars toy.

[underpants]

4. They are doing Westboro Baptist's act

"Protest" for the purpose of publicity and fund raising. IMHO.

[phantom power]

5. and yet she "kind of understands where they come from"

I guess she's thinking they should have taken over some other kind of government property?

[Lizzie Poppet]

9. I can only speculate, but what I suspect she meant was...

...that she understands (probably better than they do) the beefs with the BLM/FWS folk in the region. The local BLM/FWS people have at times been really sketchy in their actions towards ranchers. I'll look for a long, well-documented article I read yesterday on the history there (I should have bookmarked it). The upshot, though, is that there aren't any good guys in that history.

[bhikkhu]

11. Anyone in a rural area "kind of understands"

I kind of understand because I've lived among farmers and ranchers for many years. Its a hard life. The "free market" has bled them dry for decades, they've been crushed by a massive corporate food industry on one side and banks on the other. And they wind up blaming a lot of that on government regulations, which the big players can manage well enough with, but which can be a huge burden on small operations.

Not that regulations aren't there for a good reason, as much of it is to ensure us food that is safe, and an environment that doesn't make us sick, and we have clean water and so forth. The things we have we tend to take for granted.

Understanding is a good thing, and its a whole different thing from agreeing. And a whole different thing from thinking an armed take-over of a bird sanctuary is a good idea.

[Orsino]

6. Red Dawn Cosplay.

Wolverines!

[MohRokTah]

8. OMFG!!! THEY'RE LARPING!!!!!!!

[Lizzie Poppet]

10. Then they should stick to Airsoft guns.

And do it on their own damn property!