Pawn In Their Game: Y'allQaeda, Baronial Land Grabs & the Very Very Wealthy

The deputy sheriffs, the soldiers, the governors get paid
And the marshals and cops get the same
But the poor white man's used
In the hands of them all like a tool ...
He's only a pawn in their game.
(h/t Peter Sinclair for the video)

by Gaius Publius

Much is being made of the ginned-up "uprising" in Oregon — ginned up by outsiders like Ammon Bundy and other supposed yahoos too dumb or crazy to use spell-check or even engage their brains in working their prose. A sample of the Bundy brain at work:

"Mr. Obama has portrayed himself as hope and change, the only hope he gave me was gay rights with dildo enhancements. Thank you Mayor Rob Ford and Philadelphia Parole officer Agent Fletcher they give a good warm tickle when performing tooth extracts on my genital area. Mr. Obama is a phycosomatic [sic] sex freak. Mr. Obama had me and agent Fletcher perform oral sex on Sunny + Bo in the Oval office."

Don't think of this as a yahoo rebellion, however. There's a lot of money to be extracted exploiting reprivatized public lands. The excellent Peter Sinclair tells us all about it at ClimateCrocks,com:

Y’allQueda, YeeHawd, and Climate Change

The jokes are coming fast and furious as social media tears up the pathetic, but heavily armed, yahoos occupying federal buildings in Oregon – but they are part of a multi-decade effort by powerful right wing forces to destroy the system of public lands and parks meant to preserve America’s, and the world’s, natural heritage, and deliver them to billionaire developers, coal barons, and oil cartels.

That last is all you need to know. Again, this yahoo rebellion is "part of a multi-decade effort by powerful right wing forces to destroy the system of public lands and parks ... and deliver them to billionaire developers, coal barons, and oil cartels." And should be seen that way whenever you look at it.

More from Sinclair:

Since the 70s, it has taken the form of phony “grassroots” campaigns known as the “Wise Use” movement, a reaction to the first generation of environmental legislation. In the Reagan era, it became the “sage brush rebellion”, fanned by reactionaries like Interior Secretary James Watt (who famously found the Grand Canyon to be a crashing bore..)

In the current era, those most vulnerable to recruitment to the Land Baron cause are lower middle class white men, who perceive themselves on the losing end of a number of social and economic changes that have displaced them from their assumed primary place in the American Dream. Their anger and resentment, fed by a steady stream of disinformation and invective from Fox News and Talk radio, has boiled over in the standoff at the Bundy Ranch in Nevada, which lead to the murder of two Las Vegas police officers by would-be revolutionaries.

Not to mention our friends, the climate destroyers:

Adding fuel to the fire, coal and fracking barons are more motivated than ever to take over federal lands...

There's much more in Sinclair's article — he's done some research and I want to send you there. Let me leave you, though, to ponder two ideas, both from longer quotes in the article. First, from InsideClimate News:

A coalition of more than 400 groups have signed a letter to President Obama they will send on Tuesday urging him to stop the sale of new oil and gas drilling leases on public land to combat climate change. The signees include indigenous groups, labor unions, scientists, religious leaders and environmental organizations. ...

The campaign comes four days after the Obama administration announced it would open nearly 40 million acres in the Gulf of Mexico to new oil and gas drilling leases...

Next, from John Borowski at Counterpunch:

In reality: from Ted Cruz to powerful extractive industries: they are desperately seeking ways to give these lands, our lands: back to the states. Then: let the extraction begin with sales of our prized lands to the highest bidder.

Yahoo rebellion or baronial land grab? If the very very wealthy are beneficiaries, I'd say the yahoos are just pawns ... but don't tell them. They think they're in charge.

Yahoos At Work for the Anti-Climate Cause

Like lemmings to the climate chaos sea, our lovable yahoos are helping show the way. We can march with them, you and I, or apply an Easter Island solution to the problem — ignore the other villagers and confront the chief. The choice really is ours, and the time really is now. It's not too late ... yet.

Oh, and the only candidate not beholden to carbon interests is waiting for your support. That would be Bernie Sanders, and he alone. A win in Iowa would go a long way to dispel the false "electability" narrative. If you'd like to help him, click here. This page also lists every progressive incumbent and candidate who has endorsed him. You can adjust the split in any way you wish. And thanks!

GP