The Cliven Bundy race controversy has infected/poisoned the Right

me | 4/26/2014 | self

[logi_cal869]

I was going to post a reply to another FReeper’s post on the Bundy race non-controversy, but my comments segued dramatically into a rant, supported by a host of sources.

What's amazing to me is the abject ignorance of people on the Right, including radio.

I won't name him, but I received the following email from a conservative radio host (also does national). This is what he wrote in response to my email critiquing him on calling Bundy a "bigot" and elaborating why he's not:

"Before the militarized blm…how was it overbearing for the blm to give him twenty years, two trips to federal court…and he owes the american people a million bucks. Sounds pretty lenient to me"

He failed to address the 'bigot' comment or why he made it, but chose to address my comment about the BLM being 'overbearing' (he believes the BLM response was appropriate).

As well, non-left foreign media FAIL to do due diligence in reporting and continue to parrot total falsehoods in their 'news'. The link I found the 'bodyguard' story at was here. Pertinent quotes:

"He has refused to pay $1million taxes on his herd"

and

"Officials had tried to round up Bundy's cattle and evict him on April 12 after 20 years of not paying federal taxes. However they were forced to give up after a militia of several hundred people, some of them armed with sniper rifles, turned up and threatened to open fire."

and

"Mr Bundy, a 67-year-old father-of 14 and registered Republican, is accused of not paying federal grazing taxes for his cattle for 20 years, and reportedly owes the government $1million."

Not once, or twice, but THREE TIMES they push the issue that he owes TAXES.

First, everybody here knows only Congress can levy Taxes. Levied fines, regulatory fees, et all, are the scourge of Progressives (stating the obvious & preaching to the choir, of course).

Secondly, it’s not the “$1.1 million” they’re citing. That’s the BLM’s cited total, of which the principal of the $1.1 million is likely only $200,000 or so and was offered to State and/or Local government in place of paying the BLM. But an overwhelming majority of any media on ANY side is too willing to omit honest facts.

Thirdly, citing as "taxes" the per-AWU 'grazing fees' , (plus) 'penalties' and (plus) so-called 'trespassing fines' is dishonest...a LIE. The dishonesty (or, as I prefer, “Gross Negligence”) on the part of the media is overwhelming. Do an internet search on “taxes” +”bundy” and you get 1.5 million + hits on ‘news’. It’s also infectious.

Without wasting time on links easily discovered, among the transgressors (in no particular order or ideology):

Daily Mail, Forbes, US News & World Reports, Daily Caller, Townhall, CNN, Huffington Post, Yahoo, American Thinker (poster), Washington Post, Washington Times, Examiner, Morning Call, Inquisitr…to name but a few.

The worst part about the ‘Taxes’ BS and the associated ignorance is that the Summary Judgment against Bundy is that it cites not a SINGLE USC law that he violated. Not ONE. BLM regulation only & supporting court cases. If they were taxes, the IRS would have thrown him in jail a long, long time ago (related, but different topic). At least there’s a bit of sanity coming from the right and being honestly reported (albeit in minority & obscurity) and even though Livingston misuses the word ‘taxes’:

David Livingston, a Republican member of Arizona’s Legislature, was one of them. “I’ve heard that this is about a guy who’s not paying taxes,” Livingston told Newsweek. “That’s not the issue. The issue is property rights and the federal government overreaching.”

As well, on Fox’s ‘The Five’ (liberal) co-host Bob Beckel states:

“I don’t feel sorry for the guy at all,” liberal co-host Bob Beckel said. “He’s a tax dodge. He oughta be indicted.”

To which Dana Perino asked:

“Do you feel the same about Al Sharpton?” Perino replied. “Al Sharpton owes $1.9 million, and the president did an event with him praising him just last Friday.”

(Perino also misses the boat on the ‘tax’ issue vs. BLM ‘fees’, ‘penalties’ & ‘trespass fines’)

Again, only in minority is sanity being displayed. But that doesn’t change the fact that the left has infected people on the right with what’s been described as ‘intellectual dishonesty’. Although the term was first used here by another FReeper in a derogatory sense, I think the term is perfectly fitting when properly applied (as I believe I have done). I'm really getting sick & tired of people spouting their opinions out the wrong end out of an abundance of intellectual dishonesty. Frankly, I think it exposes their own unresolved biases…but that’s just another ‘opinion’.

Also regarding ‘opinions’, I was treated to another seemingly-biased opinion of Bundy’s so-called ‘doubling down’ on his statements when asked about it on the Peter Schiff show on 4/24 here. I was forwarded the link to the interview, but could not listen to the audio until just in the past hour (tech issues). I transcribed his remarks in just a few minutes for the benefit of ‘clarity’:

Bundy:

“You know, what I said, ‘I’m wondering’. And I know Glen Beck, he has something on the internet or news, and he uses the term ‘I’m wondering’. And when they come to me, I said ‘That’s exactly what I said…I’m wondering, if they’re better off under government subsidy and they’re young women are having abortions and their young men are in jail and their older women and their children are standing, settin out on their cement porch without nothin to do. You know, ‘I’m wondering: Are they happier now under this government subsidy system than they were when they were slaves and they were able to have their family structure together, and chickens and garden…the people had something to do. And so, in my mind, I’m wondering, are they better off being slaves in that sense or better off being slaves to the United States government in the sense of subsidy? I’m wondering. The statement was right. I ‘am’ wondering.”

I can’t agree with the interpretation I was given (which stated at the least if it weren’t racist, it’s as close as you can get). I can’t agree with that at all. Bundy wasn't making bigoted comments about blacks. To the contrary, he was making a comparison of the US Government to slavery. He's not an intellectual; that's patently obvious, and he fails in effective communication. How that gets elevated to a viral infection of the Right is beyond me.

I was done commenting on this so-called ‘controversy’ before…

It’s just that NOW it’s literally ‘in my face’: The left’s seemingly-infectious intentional dishonesty has morphed into unwitting intellectual dishonesty with TWO conservative radio hosts (one Thursday, the other, who is also national, yesterday at about 2:30 pm is when I heard the remark and within an hour re the email)...WTF???

This isn’t about Bundy. Nor is this about the left or the media. This is about apparent unresolved biases & guilt of ‘more than a few’ on the Right resulting in, what appear to me to be, emotional reactions to a supposed controversy, unintentionally fanning the flames of discontent based on either intentional ignorance (listening to the ‘news’) or biased interpretations (confusing ‘insensitive’ & ‘un-PC’ with racism, intentionally or otherwise), rather than embracing their core beliefs and uniting against the common enemy.

If conservatives can’t pool resources and separate from the manufactured controversies promoted (and likely schemed) by the left, then there’s no hope…

None at all.

[dalereed]

Shove political correctness up your back side!!

Now and always and under all circumstances!!!

[logi_cal869]

That's a rhetorical question, but not analogous. It's intellectually disingenuous to compare the 2 in simple terms. This is why Bundy got heat; he's a simple man and used the terms he best understood. It's to the rest of us to discern his intent intellectually, not emotionally.

This guy wrote it better than I:

http://www.examiner.com/article/cliven-bundy-racist-not

Cliven Bundy is not a wealthy man. He is not an educated man. He has not had decades in the practiced art of prevarication that is the Left's stock in trade - in fact one of the only things the Left does well. He is a simple man who simply expresses his opinion, without careful word crafting, without considering that there is an entire industry out there with nothing better to do than put his words under a microscope so they can misrepresent them for their own unscrupulous purposes.

In fact, Bundy was trying to say what many have said for decades, i.e. that the Left has created a nightmare for the black community, and that many blacks are much worse off today than they were before the great liberal welfare experiment of the 1960s. The welfare state is primarily responsible for destroying the nuclear black family, and endemic crime, drug addiction and unemployment are the direct result. Prior to President Lyndon Johnson's "Great Society" welfare expansion, the unemployment rate for young blacks was lower than that for whites. Out of wedlock pregnancies were a fraction of what they are now, and crime and drug addiction, while problematic in inner cities, were nowhere near today's levels.

Democratic politicians justify the burgeoning welfare state as reflecting compassion for the “poor and oppressed,” but the fact is that the Left created the welfare state deliberately and specifically to capture the minority vote forever. The infamous socialist authors of the "Crisis Strategy," Richard Cloward and Frances Fox Piven, had much to do with this, and they admitted as much, saying, “If organizers can deliver millions of dollars in cash benefits to the ghetto masses, it seems reasonable to expect that the masses will deliver their loyalties to their benefactors.” It worked. In 1960, only 58 percent of black voters were Democrats. By 1968, 92 percent were Democrats and only three percent were Republicans.

In 1961, Cloward co-founded an experimental welfare program called "Mobilization for Youth." Presidents Kennedy and Johnson used his model to envision a massive federal infrastructure that would both fund leftwing activism and buy off minorities. What followed was President Johnson’s “War on Poverty,” and the Office of Economic Opportunity created to implement it. OEO financed "10,000 organizations employing several hundred thousand people” to radically transform U.S. policy outside the political process, according to conservative activist Howard Phillips, who ran OEO in 1973. He identified Cloward and Piven as OEO’s “ideological architects.”

If you have not read Cloward and Piven's treatise on the Crisis strategy, you should do so now.

[Sigurdrifta]

Yes, I think there is a reason for the changing of labels. I have noticed over 4 decades teaching in a large university that every so many years,we change:
“colored”, “black”, “African-American”, “person of color”, “Negro” (not in necessarily the correct order).

My usual experience has been to be called a “racist” because I had used one of the previously accepted terms that had now been defined as “racist” by the PC police.

It’s quite the game.

[logi_cal869]

Frankly, I was concerned he’d backtrack on his statement.

He stood his ground. He doubled-down, as some pundits will assert.

We could do well to have more like Cliven Bundy. IMHO

I don’t write that lightly. While I was dubious of this whole thing and the man’s intentions at the outset, the more I learn/learned about him, the more impressed I am and willing to defend him.

[lonestar]

If you have to apologize for who you are, perhaps you should change who you are!

[mrsmith]

I pity the ignorant fool that knows so little of Man and his history as to think slaves of government are better off than slaves of persons.

[lonestar]

If Cliven was Dr. Bundy, head of Communications Dept. at Harvard, he wouldn't be having to explain anything to anybody; he wouldn't have been questioned. The NYT/media would have understood.

And agreed.

[logi_cal869]

Exactly. Perfect summary.

I just have an abundance of concern for the ‘infection’ of the Right. The extent of it, upon my own investigation, shocked me. I really don’t understand it; there’s no rationale. I’d sincerely hoped I was wrong and that they were right, as the consequences of my being right were far more ominous (as I outlined). Conservative media, particularly those in radio, are conservatives’ last MSM bastion. If we lose them and their disciplined journalistic integrity to emotional whims, political correctness and, if it happens, regulatory stifling of opinion, it’s over.

I got punched twice in the gut in 2 days by sources I still have faith in; I sincerely hope that statement isn’t lost on them...

[logi_cal869]

I have tried. I have expended HOURS I don’t have on this, potentially compromising my own timely tasks. But it was a calculated risk.

I hope the effort is not in vain.

[mrsmith]

The media makes the most money presenting anything, and anyone, in the way that is best for marketers.
It’s only logical that they behave that way. And that politicians go along with them.
This is the most ‘exciting’ way they could present Bundy’s statement. They’d have made less money presenting him honestly.
One day his point will be taken up by an orator, it has before, and the media will have to struggle to twist it for profit.
Appreciaate your post.

[bmwcyle]

Stupid vanity posts like yours are worthless.

[logi_cal869]

Hmmm...Ok.

There’s no appropriate response to that except a bowel movement....

Gotta go.

[WVNan]

Hi RR. This afternoon I have watched the History Channel as they have presented the Rise and the Fall of Germany under Hitler. The Rise part was recorded by using home movies made by German people. They laid open how the German people allowed Hitler to take over. The methods used were similar to the way the liberal elite are using on Americans now. Not all Germans wanted to live under the Third Reich. But once it was in control no one dared speak out or criticize it. Everyone just “shut up” because they no longer trusted each other. So the control was sealed.

I find myself along with many other conservatives in somewhat of the same position. We have to watch every word we say. We can’t speak certain words or we are isolated, ridiculed and destroyed. We just saw that happen to an old man who speaks his mind because in his world he had the freedom to use his own words. He sees an injustice and he says so, but He made the mistake of using “forbidden” words. The Reich and it’s propaganda machine has effectively isolated, ridiculed, and eventually he will be destroyed.

The left wants a homogenous population just like Hitler did; not in physical appearance,but in thought. We must all march to the leftist thought control. To speak otherwise is to be an outcast. I see this everywhere. People are afraid to even talk to one another. I have two children who refuse to allow me to talk about my conservative ideas. Well, we saw in Germany how a “unified” country fares. We heard how every German “loved” Hitler. It was not true. A unified/controlled country is a dictatorship.

Mr Bundy may be the nail in the coffin that seals our country’s demise. The “thought police” are in control now. They even have the so-called conservative media. Now, we fight or become slaves in reality.
I guess I’m in rather a bad mood right now.
Hope all is well with you.
God bless

[rabidralph]

I'm doing well, Nana. I appreciate your insights into what's going on. And I'm angry that fellow conservatives, or those who claim to be so, fall into the trap of quick condemnation before they know the facts. And no one wants to stand up and speak about the real issues. We see how quickly Paul Ryan caved when he spoke truthfully about minorities and their inner city problems.

And then some other FReeper told me to pipe down because our site is being "monitored" by liberals. What is wrong with people on our side? (rhetorical, as all real courage and strength comes from Christ)

[Nifster]

It is what communists do best.... their history is replete with examples. There is no reason to presume that they would change now when it works so well.

I understood what Mr. Bundy was trying to say. My point has always been that it is best to stay focussed rather than rambling along. It is a guaranteed way to end up in the quick sand (oooops I almost said dancing with a tar baby but that would have really been bad ;} )

[Telepathic Intruder]

I did understand your point, but mine was that liberals often don't want to understand, or at least to understand in a way that isn't true. It makes it easier for them to demonize the other side since they know they can't get what they want through rational debate.

[WVNan]

As I said, things are going to come to a head. I don’t know how, but we have to hold out as a country until the Boomer generation fades away, and pray that their children will turn on them and they have turned on their parents. It was a forgone conclusion that the young radicals would take control of both government and higher education. They were a disaster when they were tearing down the fabric of our 200 yr old society and now they are finishing the job. I’m too old to fight now. You young patriots will have to hold the fort and fill the gaps. May God lead you.

[rabidralph]

Come what may, God is still on His throne and we will continue the fight, with His help. Have a blessed weekend!

[DuncanWaring]

I would encourage you to keep in mind the words of Adm. James Bond Stockdale, reflecting on his time spent checked-in at the Hanoi Hilton:

This is a very important lesson. You must never confuse faith that you will prevail in the end—which you can never afford to lose—with the discipline to confront the most brutal facts of your current reality, whatever they might be.

[DuncanWaring]

Ping.