Fox News and the right wing grievance industry never waste an opportunity to whine about the criminality of those who engage in welfare fraud. In order to foment outrage about "the takers," Fox frequently features segments in which those on federally funded food stamps are portrayed as deadbeats who are robbing the taxpayers. But the radical, conspiratorial anti-government right, aided and abetted by Fox News, considers Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy to be a hero because of his refusal to pay grazing fees on lands owned by the federal government which Bundy doesn't recognize because freedom. Last night, Megyn Kelly provided us with a sympathetic "new look inside of this fight" brought to us courtesy of the paranoid, xenophobic "filmmaker" Dennis Michael Lynch who is very concerned about the lawlessness of undocumented immigrants (they're coming to slit your throat) - Cliven Bundy's lawlessness, not so much.

Kelly started off dramatically: "For so many, this fight had little to do with animals; but everything to do with freedom." Kelly reported that because Cliven Bundy didn't recognize federal ownership of the land where he was grazing his cattle and that the feds own lots of other land in Nevada, he didn't have to pay his grazing fees. She played video, done by Lynch, which featured the freedom loving Cliven Bundy up-close and personal. After one of his posse whined about how the federal agents were "pointing guns at these free people" (who were locked and loaded), Kelly proclaimed "that became a big part of the story, the tactics used by the feds."

She introduced Lynch who was "right in the thick of things" which is where he was when he was part of the Larry Klayman/Sarah Palin revolution circus during the 2013 government shutdown. She described his video as "extraordinary" and noted how Lynch "faced down armed officers himself" in "working to bring about a peaceful resolution." After Kelly expressed her legal opinion that Bundy was wrong, she provided his side of the story.

Lynch praised himself as an intrepid filmmaker who has "faced down cartels" at the border and who, as a New Yorker can't be "bs'ed." He said that he "got nervous" when he realized that the Bundy bunch was "willing to die" and is unnerved by the "trend" of "Americans against Americans." (ROFLMAO - this is how Fox News gets the big bucks!) Kelly showed video of the Bundy gang praying before, as Lynch said, "they went into battle." Lynch remarked that he was so moved by the prayer footage that "my heart was beating." Kelly worked in some conspiracy with her comment that Lynch was worried because he heard that "there were orders to shoot." She played video of a Bundy supporter making this claim.

Kelly waxed poetic about the "mindset" of those who prayed over what they believe to be a "moral issue." She asked the leading question of whether those, who were willing "to put their lives on the line," were "fearful." Lynch said he has never met anyone "as willing to give their life because they didn't want to pay a tax or a fee." Kelly worked in a right wing talking point: "It's about big government for some of these ranchers and militas..." Lynch downplayed the role of the militias as "overcooked."

Kelly saved the best part, where Lynch became part of the story, for last. Video, purporting to show Lynch trying to broker a peaceful resolution, was played. Upon close scrutiny, it was bizarre as a shouting Lynch seems to be standing way out of earshot of the feds who are seen in what appears to be spliced in footage. After she acknowledged how the rule of law pertained here, Kelly cited how people vowed to fight Jim Crow laws when they said "we will rise up and change that law."

That's when Lynch started his patented crazy talk. He noted that the BLM owns large tracts of land at the border and predicted that "the Bundy's will pay a fee to them when they stop taking money from the cartels who use that property to bring drugs into this country because I never see the M-16's down at the border stopping the drugs and the terror, and the day laborers coming through. It's just an open door." He blithered about how M-16's are being pointed at faces because of the "turtles" (See conspiracy here) and how "it's a much bigger story." In defending the Bundy's he told Megyn, "I look you in the eyes and I know who you are. I looked those people in the eyes. They're for real."

Funny, I don't remember Kelly being so supportive of the "Occupy" protestors who actually had clergy in their midst! 

BTW, if the government gets into another war that I object to, can I refuse to pay taxes?