TPM Reader RT grew up in Medford, Oregon, the spot of today’s feature story about a goldmine that may be shaping up as the next Bundy Ranch style stand off between violent whackjobs with Internet-based legal theories and the Bureau of Land Management.
From RT …
I grew up in Medford, Oregon, land of the BLM controversy du jour.
Southern Oregon and Northern California (known as the State of Jefferson to the local fringe and unhinged), is packed full of resentment not just of the federal management of lands, but also of any interference by the state governments. The locals feel taxed for the benefit of the urban centers – basically the same syndrome seen in flyover country with regard to the coastal elite.
It is a city with an extremely active and prominent evangelical crowd. G. W. Bush visited the region twice and Cheney once. In my eighteen years there were two quick presidential visits – Ford and Reagan – while Bush and Cheney actually stayed overnight.
It is a hot bed of meth addicts, libertarians, white nationalists, kluckers and people afraid FEMA is about to haul them away. BLM conflicts are fairly routine and the BLM is disliked almost as much as the IRS.
