However, that is neither here nor there: the ranchers are resisting, and they must be defended, no matter how shortsighted their tactics may be.

One more thing: the Twitterverse is attacking the ranchers on the crazed grounds that America doesn’t have equality of government repression. Yes, you read that right. The protesters in Ferguson were faced with tanks, and military-style repression, so why don’t we see the same response to the Oregon protesters, they stupidly ask.

It’s hard to even confront such arguments: are these people really saying that repression is a “right” that has to be equally distributed? Is it something in the water that has lowered the intelligence of these people to such a degree that they really want the government to come down hard on everyone?
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The urban left is cheerleading Washington’s war against the cowboys, using every meme from the “anti-terrorist” playbook to target a powerless minority that is bravely fighting against the mightiest military machine on earth. A more revolting spectacle is hard to imagine – but 2016 is young yet, so we’ll just have to see what the new year has in store for us.

The manual authorizes the killing of civilians during armed conflict and establishes a framework for mass military detentions. Journalists, according to the manual, can be censored and punished as spies on the say-so of military officials. The manual freely discusses the use of nuclear weapons, and it does not prohibit napalm, depleted uranium munitions, cluster bombs or other indiscriminate weapons.

The manual might have more properly been titled A Manifesto for Total War and Military Dictatorship.