The armed right-wing militia members who are occupying the headquarters of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge out in Oregon say they believe in and want to defend the Constitution.

That's pretty standard right-wing militia-type rhetoric, but the ironic thing is people like Ammon Bundy don't actually believe in or care about the Constitution.

They say they do, and can probably quote a few of its most obscure sections to "prove" that the federal government is evil, but when it comes right down to it, they're a lot more like the people that opposed the Constitution than the people who wrote it.

Yesterday, Twitter user BillMon1 explained why this is in a brilliant series of tweets.

He wrote, "Funny thing about Bundy types & their pocket Constitutions: They're in ideological tradition of those who OPPOSED it -- Anti-Federalists Fears of a tyrannical central government, exaggerated claims of state sovereignty, localism and suspicion of elite conspiracies are all arguments and emotions that were used to agitate against ratification of the document Cliven Bundy claims to hold so dear."

But the irony doesn't stop there.

The Bundy types aren't just opposed to the spirit of the Constitution; they're opposed to what it actually says, too.

They don't want the federal government owning land in the West, but at the time of ratification, one of the major selling points of the Constitution was the fact that it did just that: it put the feds in charge of public land.

And what's more, as BillMon points out, the Constitution specifically gives the government the power to regulate the lands it manages on behalf of the We the People.

Right there in Article 4, Section 3 it says that "Congress shall have Power to dispose of and make all needful Rules and Regulations respecting Territory or other Property belonging to US."

In other words, the government owning and protecting a patch of land in the west isn't tyranny; it's quite literally what this republic was founded on.

So sorry Bundy boys, if you don't like this country or its founding values, I respectfully invite you to leave it. If you want a conservative theocracy, I understand ISIL is building one in Syria right now.

But here, we rather like our Constitution, so either learn to deal with it or get packing.

Read more here.

-Thom

Tonight on The Big Picture on RT TV at 7pm and 10pm... TPP... What You Need to Know BEFORE It's Too Late (check your local listings for stations or stream at RT or Free Speech TV, and catch past shows on Youtube)

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 "Hillary tells Wall Street to "cut it out"... Blames Home owners"  

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Article: "A Bailout for Volkswagen? Congress Wants to Do Something Absolutely Crazy" by David Dayen.

Article: "Thom Hartmann Just Called Bullshit on Hillary Supporters Claims of Bernie's DNC support" by berni_mccoy.

Article: "Clinton and Sanders cash dash tells tale of 2 campaigns" by Gabriel Debenedetti.

Video: Bernie Sanders LIVE Wall St. Reform Speech.

Article: "Text of Bernie Sanders' Wall Street and economy speech" by MarketWatch.

Article: "Your chance to officially tell the USTR what you think about the TPP" by Flush the TPP! (deadline January 13, 2016)

Article: "Are Climate Skeptics Too 'Mentally Ill' to Buy Guns Under Obama's New Rules?" by Craig Bannister.

Video: Morning Joe: Bernie Sanders on Clinton, Iowa and more.

Petition: "Fire Debbie Wasserman Schultz From the DNC" by Troy Sanders.

Article: "GOP's Benghazi Committee passes ignominious milestone" by Steve Benen.

Article: "Isaac Asimov predicts Global Warming findings in 1971" by Pat Walden.

Article: "Child deaths test faith-healing exemption" by William McCall.

Article: "'State of Fear' by Michael Chrichton" by Wikipedia.

Book: "The Crash of 2016: The Plot to Destroy America--and What We Can Do to Stop It" by Thom Hartmann.

Article: "Bill backed by Cliven Bundy falls in Nevada Legislature " by AP.

Bill: "Nevada Senate Joint Resolution 1: Urges Congress to enact legislation transferring title to certain public lands to the State of Nevada in accordance with the report prepared by the Nevada Land Management Task Force."

Article: "Big Tobacco puts countries on trial as concerns over TTIP deals mount" by Jim Armitage.

Article: "President Obama's tears prove as controversial as gun policy" by BBC.

Law: "Glass-Steagall Act", 1933.

Article: "Shooting of Tamir Rice" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Tears of a Russian president: Putin cries at soft-rock police tribute" by Shaun Walker.

Article: "Keating Five" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Thousand points of light" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Moral Majority" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Embarrassed to Support Donald Trump" by Andrew McGill.

Article: "Iran-Contra affair" by Wikipedia.

Case: "Bob Jones University v. United States", 1983.

Article: "No More Free Passes for Saudi Arabia!" by CodePink.

Article: "Bill O'Reilly Praises Obama's Executive Expansion of Background Checks" by AWR Hawkins.

Article: "What ISIS Really Wants" by Graeme Wood.

Article: "'Dark store' issue requires legislative fix" by Michigan Townships Association.

Article: "Shooting of Trayvon Martin" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Shooting of Michael Brown" by Wikipedia.

 

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Article: "North Korea claims it detonated a Hydrogen bomb" by TMN.

Article: "WH: North Korea claim of H-bomb test 'not consistent' with evidence" by TMN.

Article: "North Korean nuke test 'profoundly destabilizing': UN" by Luke Vargas.

Article: "San Bernardino gun buyer pleads not guilty to indictment" by Amy Taxin.

Article: "Obamacare repeal to clear Congress" by Justin Duckham.

Article: "Congressional Budget Office: 24 Million More Uninsured if Obamacare Repealed" by Andrew Taylor and Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar.

Article: "Marco Rubio Super PAC Releases South Carolina TV Ad" by Daniel White.

Article: "Ted Cruz unveils new anti-immigrant 'Invasion' ad in New Hampshire" by Texas Tribune.

Article: "Super PAC ad highlights Christie's vow to keep Gitmo open" by Daniel Strauss.

Article: "Kasich's Super PAC Attacks Christie in New Hampshire Mailer" by Adam Wollner.

Article: "Trump: Cruz's Birth Status 'A Problem For Him' [VIDEO]" by Steve Guest.

Article: "Cruz brushes off birth question" by TMN.

Bill: "Searching for and Cutting Regulations that are Unnecessarily Burdensome Act of 2015 or the SCRUB Act of 2015" by Rep. Smith, Jason [R-MO-8].

Article: "Bernie Sanders Calls Out The Biased Corporate Network News For Blacking Out His Message" by Jason Easley.

Article: "ABC, CBS, And NBC News Made An Intentional Decision To Ignore Bernie Sanders " by Jason Easley.

Site: "Goats for the old Goat".

Site: Governor Free Don Siegelman.

Article: "Quick Morning News - January 6, 2016" by Victoria Jones.

Hour Three: Would Bundy Be Dead If He Were Black?
- Chauncey DeVega, Salon/Alternet    

Article: "They'd be killed if they were black: The racial double standard at the heart of the new Bundy family standoff" by Chauncey DeVega.

Article: "Harry J. Anslinger" by Wikipedia.

Article: "First Child Victims Named In Sandy Hook School Shooting" by Christopher Rogerst, December 15, 2012.

Video: The Rock Obama Cold Open - SNL.

Quote: "Treason to whiteness is loyalty to humanity" - Noel Ignatiev.

 

Article: "Firing of Shirley Sherrod" by Wikipedia.

Article: "MoveOn to Launch Presidential Endorsement Vote on Thursday" by Nick Berning.

Article: "2nd Amendment". A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.

Article: "The Second Amendment was Ratified to Preserve Slavery" by Thom Hartmann.

Book: "A retrospect of the Boston tea-party, with a memoir of George R. T. Hewes, a survivor of the little band of patriots who drowned the tea in Boston harbour in 1773" by George R. T. Hewes.

Excerpt: "Boston Tea Party, a chapter from the book Unequal Protection by Thom Hartmann" by Thom Hartmann.

Law: "Tea Act", 1773 (GB).

Book: "Unequal Protection: The Battle to Save Democracy" by Thom Hartmann (read online).

Book: "Unequal Protection: How Corporations Became "People" - And How You Can Fight Back" by Thom Hartmann - new updated version out now!

Article: "A Summary View Of The Rights Of British America" by Thomas Jefferson.

Book: "Rebooting the American Dream: 11 Ways to Rebuild Our Country" by Thom Hartmann (read online).

Book: "Rebooting the American Dream: 11 Ways to Rebuild Our Country" by Thom Hartmann.

Article: "Final Major Budget Deal Of The Obama-Boehner Era Forces GOP To Release Social Security Hostages" by Alan Pyke.

Article: "What You Need To Know About the Budget Deal" by Ali Weinberg and Ben Siegel, Oct 27, 2015.

Event: Minnesota, February 26th, 2016: "Blue State Ball 2016".

Quote: "Every day, in every way, I'm getting better and better" - �mile Cou�.

Article: "Constitution of the United States" Article 1 section 10 Clause 1. "No State shall enter into any Treaty, Alliance, or Confederation; grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal; coin Money; emit Bills of Credit; make any Thing but gold and silver Coin a Tender in Payment of Debts; pass any Bill of Attainder, ex post facto Law, or Law impairing the Obligation of Contracts, or grant any Title of Nobility."

 

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