Fox’s Kelly Wright dredged up an old Glenn Beck and Roger Ailes conspiracy theory about President Obama in order to deliberately inflame the already-tense situation between law-breaking Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy and the federal government trying to enforce the law – and the $1 million bill owed to American taxpayers - Bundy has flouted for over 20 years.
As Media Matters explained:
In a July 2, 2008 campaign speech in Colorado, Obama called for the expansion of service organizations such as AmeriCorp and the Peace Corps, along with America’s Foreign Service. During his speech, Obama said:
OBAMA: We cannot continue to rely only on our military in order to achieve the national security objectives that we’ve set. We’ve got to have a civilian national security force that’s just as powerful, just as strong, just as well-funded.
Obama’s call for more involvement in civic service organizations was distorted by Fox and the right-wing media, who employed inflammatory rhetoric such as claiming Obama wanted to build a “civilian army” that would be part of the president’s “thugocracy” and is “what Hitler did with the SS.” Even Fox News CEO Roger Ailes was reportedly concerned that Obama’s comments meant he “wanted to create a national police force.”
Glenn Beck was also one of those “thugocracy” and “Hitler” yellers cited by Media Matters.
Wright revived that conspiracy theory yesterday - and used it to incite outrage and sympathy on behalf of the lawbreaking Bundy ranchers. Wright played that clip of Obama and said, “That was then-Senator Obama in 2008 telling Americans that the U.S. needs to beef up its domestic police force and with the recent raid of Cliven Bundy’s Nevada ranch – well, his push for a stronger domestic militia could be fulfilled. But western lawmakers now saying not so fast. The cattle dispute sparking a state-wide movement to take back land from feds within their own borders..
Wright pushed that paranoia repeatedly – and conflated it with Fox’s hysteria mongering over Senator Harry Reid calling the armed Bundy supporters “domestic terrorists” - throughout a following interview with conservative John Fund.
WRIGHT: When you look at the climate of what’s going on since the Cliven Bundy ranch situation in Nevada, what causes of concern do we have, particularly when the Senate Majority Leader classifies those who were protesting this entire situation with the Bureau of Land Management, stating that they’re domestic terrorists?
Fund seized the moment to blow the “secret Muslim” dog whistle to suggest that President Obama cares more for Muslim terrorists than American protesters - while ignoring Bundy lawlessness and supporters threatening federal agents with guns.
FUND: Well, I think it’s very misplaced priorities. Remember in 2009 we had the Fort Hood shooter in Texas who said “Allahu Akbar” as he mowed down people? We didn’t all that domestic terrorism. We called that workplace violence. So far Harry Reid to call U.S. citizens who are protesting what happened to Cliven Bundy “domestic terrorists,” that makes us worry that our own government is thinking of us as a hostile force, rather than the people who are their bosses.
Instead of pointing out that the Bundy supporters were threatening armed insurrection, Wright painted them as victims. And then suggested this is only the beginning of an Obama administration’s assault on patriotic Americans:
Wright: You talk about hostile force. And what we saw with the BLM, Bureau of Land Management, is that they were armed. They had federal agents armed with the weapons pointed towards citizens of the United States. And they’re not the only ones who are out there who are armed. What should be our concern about this?
Fund told Wright that “about 80 federal agencies have gotten training in law enforcement techniques and tactics.”
“Why?” asked Wright. As if it was not his job to know about the subject he was discussing. But maybe it’s because the answer might have made him uncomfortable: it’s because of policies put in place after 9/11, under President George W. Bush.
Fund acknowledged that “sometimes the raids are appropriate.” He later added, “My view is, we need to lower the temperature on all sides.”
But Wright was intent on raising the temperature - for one side. “John, last time I checked, we were a government for the people and by the people and of the people,” he said. “What’s the deal here? How can you have that when you have certain members of the government who could be threatening in a situation that should be non-threatening and negotiated through peaceful dialogue.” Later, Wright made a blatant plug for Bundy’s case: “I can’t speak on Bundy’s behalf but he’s had this land since the 1870s in his family!”
Yesterday, I posted about how Fox News never seems to care about government overreach when persons of color are involved. Do you think that if Bundy was a black occupier who decided that he owned the grazing land as part of slavery reparations that Fox would be so sympathetic? I think we know the answer.
Video below via Media Matters.
Also their is no documentation on the tortoise and how there being impacted. So I believe that BS on the side of the BLM. There is something greater at work here.
the true violence in the world is coming from our own government. American liberals should stop shilling for the military-industrial-complex by hanging violence on peaceable conservative Americans:
“During the beginning of his first term in office President Obama promised “to remake the Middle East into a region of prosperity and freedom”. Six years later the reality is totally the contrary: the Middle East is ruled by despotic regimes whose jails are overflowing with political prisoners. The vast majority of pro-democracy activists who have been incarcerated, have been subject to harsh torture and are serving long prison sentences. The rulers lack legitimacy, having seized power and maintained their rule through a centralized police state and military repression.Direct US military and CIA intervention, massive shipments of arms,military bases, training missions and Special Forces are decisive in the construction of the Gulag chain from North Africa to the Gulf States.
We will proceed by documenting the scale and scope of political repression in each US backed police state. We will then describe the scale and scope of US military aid buttressing the “remaking of the Middle East” into a chain of political prisons run by and for the US Empire.
The countries and regimes include Egypt, Israel, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Iraq, Yemen, Jordan and Turkey . . . all of which promote and defend US imperial interests against the pro-democracy majority, represented by their independent social-political movements…."