The darkness at the heart of Malheur

This is a great piece, and it puts most coverage of Malheur to shame. The one pang I feel after reading journalism like this is that it will not reach the people it should. It may increase our understanding of them, but it doesn't increase their understanding, nor our ability to reach them and steer them away from the cliff edge of, in this case, divesting public lands.

It's an old play, in a way: Vast, shadowy private interests manipulate the lumpen to demonize the only institution that can stop them, the government, in order to hack away at the general welfare and the public good.

The Bundy's are just sock puppets for the Kochs and other barons amassing fiefdoms at the people's expense.

This is not a short or simple read. However, if you believe that the American experiment was not a mistake, and the sclerotic dynasties of Europe are a Bad Thing, it is worth the time to read through to the end.

With the incoming administration, I have a very bad feeling that the events in the story -- militant common people fighting for their own demise -- will be replayed on a much larger scale. The more people willing to die for a cause realize that it is a lie, the more warm bodies there will be left to defend the principles that at least some of us still believe in.

The key point he makes is that privatization of public lands doesn't mean rugged individualists get land. It means the Koch brothers and Ted Turner and others with a few spare billions can buy more land.

As others have pointed out, the Bundys didn't make money running cattle. They were getting state welfare payments for taking care of four foster kids. And a loan from the Small Business Administration.

Make sure to read the conclusion. This could do with a little editing to reduce the number of descriptions of less than sane protestors and to reach the important conclusions faster.

Reading the piece he is basically describing [1]YouKnowWho's supporters. By the end he is pretty much describing YouKnowWho [2] himself.

[1] I used the moniker You Know Who instead of using Donald's last name. It seems to enrage some people when they see his last name and uncontrollably hit the downvote button. Voldermort would probably kill me for this comparison since in the Harry Potter books Voldermort was smart and charming. Donald is the idiot's version of You Know Who. Although both are very similar when it comes to lying, narcissism, and being mean to others

[2]>>Instead, the nature of evil is to take a truth and twist it, sometimes as much as 180 degrees. Love of country becomes hatred of those we believe don’t share our devotion, or don’t share it the same way.<<