Posted on 04/12/2014 10:31:38 PM PDT by servo1969
Let me obliterate a bit of confusion here: the Obama administration attempted to go to war with a rancher in Nevada. Let me amplify a little bit of truth: They tucked tail and have returned home. And let me add a bit of clarity: they had no choice!
As the nation began to become familiar with the plight of the family of Cliven Bundy, many of us harkened back to another standoff in which the Federal government attempted to bully it's outcome: Waco, Texas and the Branch Davidian massacre.
It is telling that in the Nevada case the feds pulled out so quickly, given all they had indicated they were willing to do to resolve the matter to their satisfaction. They had set up a perimeter around the Bundy's family land, ranch, and home. They had brought in extra artillery, dogs, and snipers. They were beginning the process of stealing more than 300 head of cattle that did not belong to them.
They did so--or so we were told--for the reason of protecting the desert tortoise. But then it was revealed that the Bureau of Land Management had shot far more desert tortoises than the Bundy cattle had even possibly destroyed. We were told they did it because the Bundys had broken federal laws by not paying what amounted to retroactive grazing fees to the federal government. But the Governor of the state of Nevada told us that Bundy had paid every ounce of state tax, met the state requirements, and their family had been improving the property more than 100 years previous.
Finally we were allowed to know the connection between a communist Chinese wind/solar power plant and its connection to that senator named Harry Reid. Evidently a plan had been hatched to use the Bundy property for a solar farm and instead of paying the Bundys, someone, somewhere in the administration believed it was easier to just take what they wanted.
That approach is at least consistent with the readily documented abuse of imminent domain where the government for any number of reasons--few of them valid--have taken to taking what doesn't belong to them. Americans then watch as it gets handed over to some multi-national corporation for the "cause" of the "greater good."
There were a few specific reasons why the feds chickened out in the Nevada desert though.
1. Technology - As the Bundy family members were abused, cameras captured it. Not television network cameras, but dozens of cell phone video devices that gave witness to a Bundy aunt being shoved to the ground, and a Bundy son being tazed. All of this while threatening protestors with dogs, brandished weapons and vehicles was captured, uploaded and made viral to the watching world.
2. States' Rights - As the drama unfolded it became clear that the Governor of Nevada, and the Sheriff of Clark County knew that Cliven Bundy's family had not only not broken any state law regarding the land, but that they had gone to the enth degree to insure compliance with Nevada laws on the property. The Governor and the Sheriff, to their credit, did not favor the feds as a more powerful party in the conflict. Though there must have been pressure from Senator Reid's office, the administration via the Bureau of Land Management, and local officials who were bought and sold like the Clark County Commissioner who told those coming to support the Bundys to have "funeral plans in place."
3. Grassroots Response - As other incidents have transpired in the past, the amount of time it took honest information to reach the grassroots and thus the response to the action came to slow. In the massacre in Waco, most of the nation had been sold a single narrative from the limited media outlets covering the events. Similarly the events surrounding the abduction of Elian Gonzales from his family in Florida and deportation to Cuba took place in such a response vacuum that by the time Americans knew the real story, the damage was done. With the Bundy ranch, internet outlets by the dozen had competing information with the limited "official news" being released by the networks, and in most cases the alternative sources had it correct and usually a full day or so ahead of the news cycle. By the time afternoon drive hit, when the network news rooms in New York were preparing their first stories, talk radio audiences had already been dialing their elected officials in Washington demanding action.
The majority of Americans saw through the efforts to spin the story in Nevada. Couple that with the leadership failures that the American people view the administration responsible for, from Benghazi to the Affordable Care Act, all it took was the unedited video of federal agents tazing Bundy's son, followed by his pulling the wires from his chest and continuing to stand his ground for there to be comparisons made to the American revolution.
It's also important to note that merely pulling back from the Bundy property hasn't settled the matter for the American people either.
The feds have stolen 352 head of cattle, and will not confirm or deny if they euthanized some or all of them. Recompense must be made. And to be candid, I wouldn't be a bit surprised to see if a few ambitious law firms don't try to convince the Bundy family of the validity of litigation.
Fortunately for the American people, the feds were not able to ultimately bully a simple rancher, not for a tortoise, a solar power plant, or a dirty Senator and his administration.
We owe the Bundy family a great deal of thanks for standing tall.
For if the federal government is allowed to do it with one, then there will be nothing stopping them from doing it again.
Bookmarking
We need congressional hearings. What committee has oversight authority over the BLM?
I watched video at Pete Santilli's site yesterday for hours. There was a lot of dead air, but in between, there was a lot of good information. Worth giving up some of my Saturday to figure out what was going on. You didn't see much about this later, but there were some 40 or so cowboys who trucked their ponies in from all over. They were saddled up, armed, and ready to ride out to get the cattle back themselves. They were up hidden in the ridge line. I'm sure the Feds knew they were there, but those on the ground didn't see them until after the Sheriff made his announcement that the BLM was going to leave the area. Then the cowboys (and cowgirls) came riding down off the ridge line and eventually rode out to collect the cattle where the Feds had them penned up... gave me goosebumps to see that.
That’s just it. There have been lawsuits upon lawsuits upon lawsuits. Eventually, ranchers go broke going to court and they give up. That was why Bundy originally quit paying the BLM. He said, “Why should I pay these guys to run me out of business and off my land?” And as GilesB mentioned here (thank you, Giles, by the way), once you peel back the layers of the onion, the Feds DO NOT OWN this land. They were originally paid to “manage” the land, which they stopped doing once their intention was to take it.
That is awesome!! I had not seen that! That altercation around 2:00 minute mark was Ammon Bundy (in the black shirt). He’s the son who got tased the other day. He’s my hero.
bkmk
Many Freepers were against supporting these people defending themselves from the fascist government trying to take peoples property...
Shame on all of them....
Bookmark.
I read somewhere that the county had to send in SWAT teams to insure the safe retreat of the Feds.......
As Jefferson stated, “When the people fear the government you have tyranny, when the government fears the people you have liberty”...
Now everyone should understand why they want to take our firearms.
The admins should zot their accounts
It is time to question the loyalty of law enforcement. Is it to the citizens or to government.
——The feds have stolen 352 head of cattle——
At last an exact number.
Pro Bundy Pro America sources round it up to 400
Anti Bundy sources round it down to 300 (Reuters)
Bookmark
Thanks. That added a completely new dimension to my appreciation of this event. The young Bundy has more ability, guts, moral courage and leadership than any stack of politicians. The people who stood with him deserve credit for their own courage.
That fed Bundy was talking to was contract. Had to be. He had the look. Simply a hired assassin who decided he did not have the will to kill other Americans. His IQ could go up 50 points if he would turn his hat around and go on the other side of the fence.
One of our resident geniuses with a computer needs to zoom in and get as detailed a face shot on the hired guns from the feds as possible though and post them prominently. We will see some of these people again. They are enemies of the people. They have all made a bad choice but they can change that and get on the right side of right and wrong.
Those are some lean junk yard looking cattle and those ain’t no drugstore cowboys. I think the feds ran up against some people with nothing to lose. I wonder if that guy standing on the fence wondered if he would get one in the back?
The Clark County Commissioners, Reid and his gang of thugs are in this up to their collective eyeballs. Imagine, selling public property for 1/6th of its value in a no bid sale? I saw the same thing tried somewhere else. They almost got away with it too. Just a hand full of people and one gutsy small town reporter stopped it.
This is not complex.
The GD feds and BLM and the rest of these government hired guns should be helping farmers and ranchers, by bringing in seed, water whenever possible and actually help us Americans who produce things we eat and use.
The government BLM, Rangers and the rest should not running around with sidearms, AR15's, tasers, dogs in brand new tax paid 4x4, while making Americans trespassers on their own GD soil. That's bull shit no matter how you dice it up.
And most should understand there are people out here willing to fight them and die if necessary to push these arrogant controlling government assholes back to the east coast.
One and same in this case.
Lol.
How are you?
The Feds should also be assisting these farmers and ranchers in keeping drug cartels, coyotes and illegal border runners OFF THEIR LANDS. Ranchers are being killed on our borders while working their own property and these fed bastards just look the other way, or worse, they HELP ARM THEM (hello Fast & Furious).
“And they lost?”
Yes, they lost. They capitulated. They surrendered. And it is not over for them. There will be repurcussions FOR FREEDOM that are long lasting as a result of this evil attempt of the Feds to take what was not, is not theirs. Some 5,000 armed freedom lovers were there, and more are arriving daily, even after the Feds surrendered and left.
Yes, the Feds lost this battle. There may be more...more for the Feds to lose. We the people must stand together.
Are more Patriots arriving at the Bundy ranch? News to me.
I hope so. The more the better.
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