Agreed. The Bundy Standoff at BunkerVille was not about the tortoise or the fees. However, some blame Bundy for not paying those fees to the Fed, and that he stopped paying the fees to the Fed before the tortoise became an issue.
I discovered that the tortoise was an issue before he stopped paying the Fed and that year-to-year new requirements did fit his narrative of the Fed trying to drive him out of business.
All of that said, I think that the Fed considering itself the “owner” of 80%+ of Nevada is constitutionally obscene. It’s obscene because there is no constitutional provision for such ownership by the Fed, because the constitutional allows the Fed to dispose of what it owns, and because on becoming a state, Nevada became a full and equal sovereign state with all others, and all territorial claims of the Federal government changed.
Yes Mr. Bundy finally got sick of the govt games and watching the rules change capriciously til all of his neighbors were driven out of business over the years. He said he got sick of paying range fees which were supposed to go toward keeping the rangeland up but then having to pay to do it himself. He has an argument I can sympathize with.
Honestly they have done the same thing with the mortgage business. They finally drove me out in 2010. It just got to be one more piece of paper, one more education seminar for $400, one more license fee, etc etc til they just wear you out. Its the plan. They are doing it to many industries. The progressive govt wants small business gone. Period.
We all love to eat beef and for the life of me I don’t understnad anyone who would not want to let the small ranchers graze their cattle on public land that has no other use. None of them should have to pay range fees. It would keep the price of beef down. But thats not the plan.