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Ammon Bundy, the leader of the 2016 occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, is still pushing the narrative that locals need to take greater control of federal lands.
Bundy, who was found not guilty of federal charges in Oregon (and saw a charge in a Nevada standoff case dismissed earlier this year), has led a charmed life since he burst onto public consciousness a couple of years ago.
An in-depth report newly published in the Los Angles Review of Books catches readers up with Bundy's activities since he triumphed over federal prosecutors.
Reporter Scott Bransford, who covered the Bundy's Oregon trial, followed his subject recently to the central California district of President Donald Trump's most ardent defender in Congress, U.S. Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.), the chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.
Nunes has used that platform to attack the basis for special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation of President Donald Trump.
In a speech outside Modesto, Bundy provided a rationale for the 41-day occupation of the Oregon refuge, and for continued activism, "guiding his listeners through his justifications for something akin to a holy war on environmentalists and bureaucrats," Bransford writes.
"The speech was steeped in the doctrine of dominionism, a fringe belief of Mormon and Christian fundamentalism that holds that humans have a God-given right, or even duty, to use natural resources without restriction, to eliminate government regulation, and also to subdue those who are enemies of this divine hierarchy."
After Bundy and others, including Thara Tenney, whose father, Lavoy Finicum was shot to death by police during the Malheur spoke, Nunes took the stage.
"It's very much appreciated what you guys are doing on the front lines," Nunes said to the assemblage. "If we don't marshal our forces here in this state, we are going to become extinct."