Posted on 04/20/2014 12:54:47 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
We dont know whos right in the case of the Nevada rancher vs. the federal government. But we do know that the government is losing the public relations battle, and for good reason.
When the government moved to seize Cliven Bundys cattle for his failure to pay grazing fees on public land, a growing group of supporters came to his defense literally. On April 12, after a tense and heated standoff with them, heavily armed federal agents released the cattle back and retreated.
The situation was eerily reminiscent of past ill-fated federal standoffs, such as Ruby Ridge and Waco, where federal agents raided the Branch Davidian compound and 76 people died.
This situation is different, though.
Whether right or wrong in their actions, the Bundy family cant be caricatured as a cult or a danger to anyone. And the familys predicament has ignited a firestorm of anti-government fervor, particularly in the West. Bundy backers traveled miles to show their support and face down the feds. Conservative locales in cyberspace and on the radio dial crackled with anti-government rhetoric.
The thing is, we suspect the government and media elites, if theyre paying any attention to this powder keg at all, likely dont get it.
The West, thanks to geographic and ideological distances, has always had an arms length relationship with both government and media. But the flashpoint in Nevada cant be dismissed as cowboy rebelliousness. Theres plenty of sympathy for their position around the country.
The Eastern elites probably have no clue why, either.
They doubtless have no idea how poorly the federal government is viewed today despite all the evidence in polls and surveys. After being spied on by the NSA and targeted by the IRS and having jackbooted federal agents show up to tell them how its going to be, folks good, hardworking, taxpaying, God-fearing people are tired of being abused.
As a practical matter, whether the Bundy family is in the right has ceased to matter. Like any other civil rights hotspot, all it needed was a spark.
Nor does it help that the Obama administration is so loath to deal with illegal immigrants in such a manner as it has the Bundy family. The government cant secure the border and is even insisting on amnesty for the illegals already here. But they send armed officers to crack down on American ranchers? Outrageous.
And the manner in which theyve done it is just as galling. As The Las Vegas Review-Journal noted in a recent editorial, to tamp down protests, government officials closed off hundreds of square miles of public land. Theyve closed roads. And they prohibited protected assembly and expression across huge areas of Clark County. They even took the step of creating First Amendment areas where no federal official or contractor directly involved in the roundup would ever have to see protesters.
You see, even peaceful protests can be intimidating to government types. If government types feel slightly threatened, they arm themselves to the teeth. When they arm themselves to the teeth, theyre far more likely to view a peaceful protest as cover for an attack on the government. And if they believe someone holding a sign or a camera might also have a gun, agents are more likely to hurt someone. Thus, the government suspends the First Amendment as a public safety measure: Citizens are denied their rights to peacefully assemble and engage in political speech because the content of that expression might be intimidating enough to make government agents overreact and hurt them.
The problem is, inside the government it is impossible to consider the possibility that the government can ever do any wrong.
We dont know if the Bundy family is the best rallying point. But the support theyve gotten from angry citizens is evidence that the government has a much bigger problem on its hands than a few head of hungry cattle.
Population dynamics (fauna and flora) in a free running system can look like H377.
Engaging in wordplay with the name of a group of Americans that was minding their own business until the government decided to massacre them is inappropriate in any case. There is nothing remotely “cute” about it, in my view.
What Could the Massacre of 40,000 Elephants Possibly Teach Us?
This video of ecologist Allen Savory may be helpful to understanding why cattle absolutely need to be on desert land in large numbers to prevent further desertification. Savory starts by admitting his ordering of the shooting 40,000 elephants to ‘help’ the desert was the biggest mistake of his life. He sets his argument for increasing grazing livestock dramatically, with research-area before and after slides, starting about 11 minutes in:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=vpTHi7O66pI
the write-up is here:
http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2013/03/30/grazing-livestock.aspx?e_cid=20130330_DNL_art_1&utm_source=dnl&utm_medium=email&utm_content=art1&utm_campaign=20130330
Bookmarked for future reference.
Note that I believe (and have expressed) that the BLM should be paying Bundy for his cattle's acquisition, concentration and distribution of food and water across the Desert for the benefit of the Tortoises.
Might be true but it might be another case of bureaucratic empire building by a dim bulb Democrat. This is the Democrat version of being an entrepreneur
Yes, the BLM Bureaucraps cannot see the value in “cow chips”.
They would rather spew their own BS and hot air.
Ecologist Allen Savory , makes a pretty good case for the grazing of the land ,as most all us ranchers and farmers know about the benefits rotational grazing .
Meanwhile, the government has proven time and again they CANNOT manage or run anything. Can you say Obamacare?
Looked up US census data. NV is considered 94.2% urban. One of the most urban states. National average is about 90%.”””
Take your statistics a little further.
84 ++ % of the Nevada land mas is controlled by the BLM, NFS, and other Fed agencies. No people living on those lands. So only 16% of the Nevada land mass is available for anyone to LIVE on.
Bundy’s ranch is only about 150 or so acres, IIRC, His GRAZING permit is 260,000 acres. That is bout 20 miles by 20 miles. Not even a drop in the bucket of the control the Feds have in Nevada.
There is a reason nobody lives on that 84% of Nevada, and it has very little to do with federal ownership.
It’s the same reason anybody lives anywhere. Location, location, location.
Are you familiar with the land owned by the BLM in western states? I am. I’ve spent, over four decades, many months driving, camping and backpacking on public lands in UT, CO, NV, AZ and WY.
Nobody lives on the vast majority of this land because there is quite simply no reason for anybody to want to live there. BLM land is the federal public land left over after it had been up for sale for most of a century (in some cases more than a century) with no buyers.
What do you think such land is like? I’ll tell you. Much of it is desert. Almost all is at minimum semi-arid. Little of it is classically pretty, in the meadows and forests way. A great deal of it looks a lot like an abandoned construction site, just piles of dirt and scraggly weeds. Most of it is very difficult to access.
A good bit of its desert areas are gorgeous, if you like that type of thing, which I do. But even I wouldn’t want to live on 99% of it.
I was visiting my now ex-girlfriend in the Atlanta burbs a few years back and drove through the N. GA and Western NC Mountains on the way there. Franklin NC, Clayton, Cleveland, etc. Outside of the accents and the mountains, I felt like I was back at my old home in the woods of North Michigan.
Over there (like my area), there's good people who would do anything for their neighbors to help. They also like to be left alone. There's a reason why they live on several acre lots. Very nice people, but if an outsider causes harm to one, the whole community is harmed, and will do what needs to be done. Many of the citiots don't get that. One of the next "Wilson Blairs" of the world is likely to end up being bear food at some point.
Yup. The argument may get to the baaad point. Good e’nuf.
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