A rancher's armed battle against the US government is standard libertarian fare (Typical Guardian)

The Manchester Guardian ^ | April 19, 2014 | Kieran Suckling

[2ndDivisionVet]

Cliven Bundy's standoff with the BLM is over a paltry monthly grazing fee. But it's also over more - the idea of the public interest.

Perhaps the most remarkable feature of American democracy is the magnificent estate of public land that it reserved from the very beginning for the use of all citizens, rich or poor. There is nothing like it in the democracies of Europe, which came into being with nations already carved up into private fiefdoms. The Great Idea that hundreds of millions of acres of forests, deserts, rivers and prairies should be owned by, and managed for, the public interest has had a profound and lasting influence on American culture.

But not everyone has accepted it.

Cliven Bundy’s armed standoff with the National Park Service and the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is the latest flare-up in a long, ongoing, often-paranoid revolt against federal ownership public lands, even the idea of a public interest at all.

He's part of a small group of extreme libertarians, corporate profiteers, armed militia members and livestock ranchers who have tried before to seize control of public lands, who nurture an intense hatred of the federal government, and who have a long history of violent eruptions going back to the failed “sagebrush rebellions” of the 20th century and before.

Threats of violence are de rigeur and actual violence too common in the modern sagebrush rebellion: pipe bombs planted on wilderness trails, sent to environmental groups, exploded in US Forest Service and BLM offices....

[2ndDivisionVet]

I'm thinking that a visitor from Mars who doesn't speak our language could've producing a more factual and fair & balanced report. And no, I didn't make up the author's name.

[dila813]

The guy is a fool

[C. Edmund Wright]

He had so much wrong in the first couple of sentences……I just couldn’t go on.

[2ndDivisionVet]

[rktman]

LOL! That is too funny. The name certainly fits.

[C. Edmund Wright]

LOL!!
WTF is “Biological Diversity” anyway????

[G Larry]

There is a DIFFERENCE between illustrating that you are prepared to defend your property, and “armed battle”!

The latter indicating SHOTS FIRED.

Recognizing the difference, established the author as a TOAD, and therefore, left his scribblings unread.

[kingu]

Cliven Bundy's standoff with the BLM is over a paltry monthly grazing fee. But it's also over more - the idea of the public interest.

Is there a way to get a permit for grazing on the tract of land in question? Has one been granted in the past 30 years? Did the BLM 20 years ago effectively ban grazing by the Bundy ranch on this tract of land? And why are none of these questions being asked by liberals?

[hoosierham]

I admit to certain suspicions of any man who exhibits the beard style pictured.

Seems to be worn only bycertain liberals.

[TigersEye]

Perhaps the most remarkable feature of American democracy is the magnificent estate of public land that it reserved from the very beginning for the use of all citizens, rich or poor.

The first sentence is a falsehood. I read no further.

[Georgia Girl 2]

Spoken like a true European socialist plebe. If you ever wondered why we fought two wars to rid ourselves of the Brits now you know.