Even a dumb prosecutor could come up with a litany of charges against Cliven Bundy, at least some of which would stick anywhere, everyday. Then there's the certain reality that what Mr. Bundy is currently getting away with poses clear and potential danger to cause huge future damage to our society.
Which makes me wonder if there might be more to this story.
Back when I was a marijuana merchant ("major", or not, but at least that was the characterization that DEA used in various of their documents), I was always super sensitive to those times when someone seemed to be getting away with too much. People doing dumb shit and getting away with it was always a red flag. I mean, it was sort of the etiquette at the time to not ask customers to do a strip search, looking for a "wire", but the casualties from not doing so simply could not be ignored. Alternatively, the survival strategy was to just move on to the next deal.
So the Bundy thing went down, and the entire planet was shown images of every right wing crazy in the country flocking to southern Nevada. And at least how many of them acting way too crazy for anything that could possibly be justified.
Am I suggesting that this whole thing was planned out in advance? No, not even vaguely. But I am now starting to wonder if at least some of our folks in federal law enforcement are far more sophisticated than I have ever before been willing to give them credit for being.
Look, suppose you were some Cliven Bundy dude, and this entire, world class, shit storm came crashing down on you, really, from nowhere. The shock should have been near debilitating. And then some of the voices near you started to talk about a way out of one of the more monumental human blunders imaginable. By then, he was already well known within the local power structure. Someone puts a bug in his ear about "you help us, and we help you".
Do you believe that there is the next "Tim McVeigh" out there? Or how many of them? I know that I sure do.
And whoever they are, probably ever single one of them, responded to that fucking idiot Bundy. At first, could he have any clue what he was getting into? And later, would he have been praying for a route out?
I'm just saying!