Malheur Siege Acquittal

Am I wrong to believe that had the Bundy brothers and their supporters been Muslims they would be starting 35 year sentences in federal prison about now?  How incompetent was the prosecution?  How much impact did the well-armed protesters outside the courthouse have on the jurors?  Is everybody tr*mping crazy?

If Cliven and his boys aren't convicted in Nevada, what little confidence I have left in our legal system will be gone.

Developments

Tr*mp in NH
I don't get it.  Why is roughly 30% of the vote spoken of as such a "big win?"  The problem for the Republicans is not so much Tr*mp as the sheer numbers of the remaining midgets.  If the party could just decide on a "not Tr*mp," or even a "neither Tr*mp nor Cruz," it might start to get its act together.

Could it be that Citizens United is damaging the Republican Party?  It's hard to drop out of the race when you still have so many millions of bucks supporting your lame efforts, and it's dead certain the guys running those superPACs will want to hang on until all the money paying their large salaries is gone.

Hillary in Milwaukee
I caught last night's debate on the radio, rather than TV, and I think it made it easier to just listen.  What I heard was Hillary trying very hard to shore up her black "firewall" — but it remains to be seen just how successful she was.  Her attempt to portray Bernie as "an enemy of Obama" was almost pathetic.

Ta-Nehisi Coates and Cornell West have endorsed Bernie.  Larry Wilmore and the crew of "the Nightly Show" are clearly behind him.  What will Reverend Al decide?

Gun-toting crazies
The siege at Malheur is over, but even better, Cliven Bundy's ass is in jail!  Cliven could face "up to" 40 years in prison, but I still want to know why he, his sons, and the rest of their private army are being charged under U.S. Code Chapter 42 §1985 (1 Preventing officer from performing duties) rather than the far more precise U.S. Code Chapter 115 §2381 (Treason), §2383 (Rebellion or Insurrection) and §2384 (Seditious Conspiracy).

The most recent uses of §1985 were against unarmed anti-war protesters who lay down on the floor of a military recruiting office and against unarmed animal rights activists who interfered in the culling of mountain lions.  Does the Justice Department maintain that the armed occupation of government property is no more serious than those unarmed protests, or is it genuinely intimidated by the assault rifles and American flags of the occupiers and their supporters around the country?

Malheur "standoff"

The gunmen currently occupying the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in eastern Oregon are not a joke.  They are persons in rebellion against the government of the USofA in violation of US Code Chapter 115, covering treason, sedition, and subversive activities, specifically:
     §2381 Treason
     §2383 Rebellion or Insurrection
     §2384 Seditious Conspiracy

No, they are not a bunch of "good ol' boys" playing soldier.  No, they should not be ignored until they "go away." The Bundys and the "sovereign citizens" and neo-nazis and anti-government militiamen who have been supporting them since the "stand-off" at the Bundy ranch last year, despite the pocket-size Constitutions they carry in their camo, are not "patriots."  They are criminals.

The current problem is a direct consequence of government failure to appropriately deal with Cliven Bundy's refusal to pay the roughly one million dollars in heavily discounted grazing fees he owes the United States government.  Fearful that another "Ruby Ridge" would encourage and enlarge the anti-government groups that have proliferated, especially in the western USofA, the Obama Justice Department did nothing.  I'm willing to bet the AG hasn't even garnished Cliven Bundy's Social Security checks, which I'm also willing to bet he collects and cashes every month.  Maybe while his sons and their fascist followers are busy in Oregon, Obama should send some FBI agents to arrest old Cliven and put his ass in jail.

Those who point out that blacks or Muslims or even Native Americans would not get away with such shit are entirely correct.  Also, unlike the situation with the Branch Davidians or the Weaver family at Ruby Ridge, there are no children involved — only bearded men with beer guts.  They are unlikely to arouse much sympathy among those who are not paranoid schizophrenic.  Properly equipped FBI agents should be able to subdue and capture them in short order.