Yes but which anarchists and agitators?

Dana Milbank points out an inconsistency in Trump’s Lawnorder ideology:

Trump said Sunday that federal police have been mobilized in Portland, Ore., (against the wishes of state and local authorities) to “protect Federal property” from “anarchists and agitators” — two years after Trump pardoned two men serving sentences for arson that burned 139 acres of federal property in Oregon in a case that inspired armed militias to seize federal land.

Oh yes, that pardon for destroying that federal property. Remember that?

Over and over during a 41-day armed standoff that terrified many locals, leader Ammon Bundy listed his demands: hand ownership of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge over to local ranchers and free two men convicted of starting fires that spread to public land and imperiled the lives of firefighters. On Tuesday, President Donald Trump granted one of those wishes.

Trump pardoned Dwight Hammond, 76, and his son, Steven, 49, after U.S. Rep. Greg Walden, an Oregon Republican, championed their case in a June 29 phone call with the president. Walden has long been a supporter of the Hammonds. During the 2016 standoff, Walden gave an impassioned speech in support of the Bundys’ cause.

“How do you have faith in a government that doesn’t ever listen to you?” Walden asked on the floor of the U.S. House. “To my friends across eastern Oregon, I will always fight for you. Hopefully the country, through this, understands we have a real problem in America, with how we manage our lands and how we are losing them.”

Who’s “we”? Whose is the “our”? What Walden is talking about is removing land from federal protection to hand it over to ranchers for $000,000,000. Free cattle food for ranchers, loss of wildlife refuges and parks and monuments for the rest of us.

Jennifer Rokala, executive director of the Center for Western Priorities said Tuesday that President Trump “has once again sided with lawless extremists who believe that public land does not belong to all Americans.”

The extremists are extremists both in thinking public land should be used for their personal profit and for using illegal and sometimes violent means to make their point. But Trump pardons them and brutalizes anti-racist protesters.

It’s good to know where we are.

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