Posted on 04/11/2014 10:56:27 PM PDT by Jim Robinson
An intense showdown in the state of Nevada between a family of ranchers and federal agents continues to escalate after a longstanding land dispute two decades in the making came to a head earlier this month.
As RT reported earlier this week, hundreds of armed agents with the United States Bureau of Land Management and the Federal Bureau of Investigation have descended on the Clark County, Nevada ranch of 67-year-old Cliven Bundy to execute the court-ordered confiscation of nearly 1,000 cattle, according to his family, which the US government says have trespassed on federal property.
The Washington Free Beacon newspaper reported on Monday this week that 234 of the 908 cattle had been wrangled up by government agents and their contractors, and news of the dispute has since further propelled the story into the national spotlight.
According to a notice posted by the Federal Aviation Administration a no-fly zone was enacted for a 3-square-mile area around the site of the Bundy's ranch. That advisory would remain in effect from April 11 until May 11.
Local cowboys have retrieved some of the confiscated cattle according to several reports, and supporters of the Bundy ranch from around the region have flocked to Nevada to stand by their side.
Since the Beacon first reported on the standoff earlier the week, tensions have only worsened in Clark County. Video emerged online on Wednesday of the rancher’s son, Ammon Bundy, bloodied after being shocked by an electric Taser used by authorities, and Desert News reported that, according to Cliven Bundy, his own sister was knocked to the ground by officials moments before cameras began to roll.
One witness, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal, told reporters that “Serious bloodshed was narrowly avoided” as a pregnant woman was also roughed up during the ordeal.
(Excerpt) Read more at rt.com ...
Bttt
I have done my part to starve this beast. I have reduced my income to right at $20k per year from about $80k. I’ll pay in much less.
Wow, I checked out the link. Harry Reid makes a pig sty look clean. The scene in the Godfather II (IIRC) where the Senator of Nevada is found with a dead hooker in the whore house always reminded me of Reid. The thugs of Nevada must have the goods on him.
Bundy has been to court and lost every time for the last 20+ years.
He is simply someone who doesn’t want to pay what he owes and has a constantly changing set of excuses why he shouldn’t pay his legally accrued debts. Instead of working to find a solution, he has escalated his behavior and grazed cattle on additional new lands to which his family has no historical claim. If he was sincerely concerned with abuse of the Federal government, he would have refused as a matter of principle to use their resources years ago. Instead he kept milking the same corrupt system for his own gain.
Even if he had put his back lease fees in escrow, I could have some sympathy for him and believe he was acting in good faith. Instead he tried to be clever and knowingly attempted to pay the wrong authority once and when they refused to accept, he used that as an excuse to never try to pay anyone ever again. that to me sounds like he was just looking for a way to renege on his debts while being able to say “hey I tried to pay someone”.
I am amazed that so called law respecting Conservatives are rallying behind him. If Bundy was replaced by a dirty hippie commune trying the same thing, most of us would be up in arms about them stealing from taxpayers. The eagerness of militias to come to his defense and risk violence is not going to sit well with John Q. Public and plays right into the hands of liberal memes about dangerous violent right wing extremists. He has already had his days in court and lost over and over again. I hope I am 100% wrong but in the end I fear this will set the Conservative movement back years.
How sad. A more complete story from the Russian State Media than from the American Start5e Media.
Let’s just say they confiscate 1000 head and sell at market price of about 1000$ per head for about 1M$. (The numbers are simply for rough figgerin.) Now, will they stick Bundy for any shortage or credit him with any overage?
For sure, the former, and sure as hell not, the latter.
Bundy family established rights to that land through blood an sweat, prior to ANY legal authority.
As a state and county authority began to emerge they codified water, grazing and access rights.
Then came BLM. Changed all the rules and let them know there is a new master in town.
Bundy contends his rights both predate and supersede the Feds/BLM.
Legal or not, it's not an unreasonable position.
Working land does not give you title to it. The new area he has been grazing is an area he did not use prior to losing his 1998 court case. From the 50s on, he accepted the BLM’s authority to set grazing limits. If you spend decades paying someone to use their land, it is hard to then claim you own the land because you have been using it!
And remember, he first rejected paying the BLM after 12 years of Republican Presidents had managed the BLM, including 8 years of Ronald Reagan.
If he had argued water rights or some other principle, he might have made a case. But arguing that the federal government didn’t own the land, when the Nevada State Constitution specifically says they do, is a tough sale to a court...
“Working land does not give you title to it.”
How, precisely, did the feds end up with the title to that land? East of the Mississippi there are treaties and land sales recorded where land was ‘bought’ from the Native American tribes who lived there. Is there any such record of this land being purchased from the Native Americans in that area?
“How, precisely, did the feds end up with the title to that land? “
It was acquired from a treaty with Mexico, ending the Mexican War. Most of the west was acquired that way.
As a condition for allowing Nevada to become a state, Congress required the new state to “forever disclaim all right and title to the unappropriated public lands lying within said territory, and that the same shall be and remain at the sole and entire disposition of the United States”.
The federal government did try to give the land away for many years, but in Nevada, water is more important than land.
So, fedgov received stolen property, and equally stolen water rights, from Mexico.
Seems to me they’re just mad about someone stealing the land and water rights they ‘bought fair and square!’ from the original thief.
“No officer! I bought that stereo FAIR AND SQUARE from that ‘fencing operation’ over there, It’s MINE I tell you!”
roflmto
http://www.oathkeepers.net/forum/showthread.php?t=39367&page=10
I disagree. Anyone willing to risk operating a drone over the Bundy ranch should do so as stealthily as possible.
Forgot to add, in this case property right = grazing and water rights
I realize what it’s about TODAY.
The point of what I said is that even fedgov doesn’t have clear title to the land or its water rights.
If Bundy had wanted to REALLY throw a wrench in the works, when the county turned down his payment of grazing fees he should have approached the appropriate Tribal association and offered them the money. THAT would have screwed FedGov but good.
“As RT reported earlier this week, hundreds of armed agents with the United States Bureau of Land Management and the Federal Bureau of Investigation have descended on the Clark County, Nevada ranch of 67-year-old Cliven Bundy”
This is all you need to know. The Federal govt has invaded the sovereign state of Nevada. All this over 900 scruffy cows? Get real. This isn’t about cows. Its about control and subjegation. The Governor is nowhere to be found or the local sheriff.
The Feds should have contacted the local sheriff in advance and had him coorinating the security for the removal of the cattle. You do not send an invasion force with snipers on the hill and turn off cell towers and create no fly zones. This is a military operation. The Civilian National Defense Force.
If you are not angry or at least afraid you are foolish.
If it’s federal land that means it belongs to the taxpayers and Bundy is a taxpayer therefore, voila, it belongs to him too.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.