Not Funny, But Very Interesting.
If you have some spare time today, I have some interesting reading for you. Customer Stan sent this letter to the editor from the St. George News about the Cliven Bundy standoff. It is a rational, reasoned, and historically accurate account of how we got here.
On the other side, I point you to GOP USA, where rumor, speculation, and hooey abound.
“Chickened-out?”
Read the letter! Excellent stuff! Cliven is just another rich man (he can afford to pay the fee) who believes that as a rich man he is entitled. He is not Robin Hood nor is his situation at all akin to at least 2 really bad situations that happened years ago involving in one case separatists living in the woods and the FBI and in another case the “religious” group in the compound in Waco. The feds haven’t actually backed down. This goes to court now, a really big serious court with the power to seize his assets which would pay the debt he owes. Frankly, this guy was poaching! My taxes help to pay for the land he insists on over-grazing and allowing to blow away. Does he actually believe the law abiding users of federal land who pay the fees are jackasses? And the birds of a feather who showed up shouldn’t feel that they are getting a free pass. The court can take similar action with them. They were abetting poaching and the destruction of federal land. And I don’t give a rodent’s patootie what the feeble minded GOP thinks of all this!
1“The Feds tucked tail and ran…”
2He who laughs last…
@ Maryelle- That’s their impression. My experience tells me Fed discretion saved a bunch of yahoos from dying needless,bloody and violent deaths. I watched some tape of these Yahoos strutting around with their several hundred dollar semiautomatic AR-15s and knew that a squad of WW2 British infantry with their 10 round capacity bolt action Lee-Enfields could have decimated the whole crew.
3Bundy is going to find out that “The pen is mightier than the sword!
4That’s a Welfare Queen wanting to graze his privately owned cattle on our public lands. Same garden variety of slob that doesn’t want to pay taxes, but complains constantly about potholes and anything else inconvenient to them. Moochers that let the rest of us pay taxes for the Fire Departments they share for free. But the rest of us are “commies” for the mere mention of the common good.
maggie, his idiot ding dong “defense” team crossed state lines to threaten federal officials. Plenty of conspiracy and other state & federal charges for them. Let them keep their silly guns, just take enough of their money that they won’t be able to afford ammunition.
5Perhaps “chickened out on a Nevada ranch” was a wink-wink reference to the infamous Chicken Ranch (Google it)? It doesn’t really fit the situation being discussed, but some headline writers will use all kinds of terms to generate interest in the article, whether those terms actually pertain to the subject at hand or not.
6I thought the chicken ranch was in LaGrange…..
7Maryelle – it’s not over. I am familiar with a case in SE AZ that took the BLM over 20 years of trying to work with the rancher that felt like Bundy. They eventually rounded up all the cattle and were sold them. I retired from the BLM. I started out in range management, but spent 20+ years in wild land fire fighting. The article in the St. George paper gives you good insight on the issue.
It horrifies me to think of what would have happened if the BLM had not backed off when all those armed idiots in the militias showed up. One of those leaders is an ex-sheriff from SE Arizona (one-term) and he became co-founder of a radical group called the Truth Keepers. These idiots were ready to start a shooting war in defense of a welfare rancher who has not abided by the law in over 20 years.
8Ouch, Corinne Sabo, how do I get past Mama with an explanation for the confusion? In the desert of abject confusion, when the mafia left and the corporations filled the void, a chicken ranch is a euphemism for our other legalized vice. No chickens in a bordello, but that is the … aw chit…. when my wife gets back to the office, will let her field this one.
9Like Harry Reid said – this isn’t over yet. By the time they get through, he may not have a ranch to worry about.
10There was more than one with that name, Corinne. The one just outside LaGrange was shut down (finally), but the Nevada one is still open in the charming town of (and I’m not making this name up!) Pahrump. And, no, I don’t usually carry on about brothels. I Googled it. Really.
11We really can’t allow this kind of “militia law” to be taken
12seriously. The BLM was right to turn and walk away. The courts will take care of the situation. But I have to wonder
how this country has arrived at the worship of guns and thinking the “law west of the Peoos” is freedom.
Here is a photo that explains the patience the government has shown to Bundy – – militia snipers on an overpass. You have to move slow when dealing with the slow-witted holding rifles:
13http://boingboing.net/2014/04/15/the-most-mindblowing-photograp.html
Mary R, Pahrump, NV is a quaint little town of a diverse nature. Responsible ranchers, retired folks, a few chicken ranches and casinos. Given the sane attitude of Pahrump or the head in the sand attitude of Las Vegas, give us the legalized prostitution with the gambling.
Protect the workers. Health care, safety and real wages are the way out of slavery for everyone, including sex workers. Getting them safely off the streets is step one. Not saying bordellos are the solution, just a step forward, when we have unprotected women and children being exploited on the streets.
Wonder what Cliven and his tough boys have planned to protect women and children. Oops, they tipped their hand. Women and children first, unfortunately to their death.
14It’s interesting to me just how many commenters seem to think that Bundy has some kind of squatter’s right to this land. It is immaterial to them that the other NV cattlemen are tired of paying their fees and following the rules while this joker does as he pleases. And their bizzaro ideas about the Constitution mystify me. It’s as though just uttering the word “Constitution” invokes some magic spell validating their entire outlook (and don’t forget them Founding Fathers, neither!) sort of the way they claim that things are “biblical” as though that’s some kind of clincher.
Furthermore, the level of ignorance is staggering. Utterly staggering!
15PKM, darned right!
16No need to beat around the bush about this.. the folks posting comments supporting Bundy over at GOPUSA are not only morons but they are traitors and should be treated accordingly.
17I clicked on the gop article (after reading the thoughtful, factual letter to the editor), and gave up immediately. I need my mind for real things, not crap. The BLM behaved with admirable restraint. I get one of their newsletters (from CA), and it’s terrific. Ranchers grazing illegally, pot growers planting illegally (and defending their plots with heavy weapons), etc., all piss me off. The commons means ALL our property; that’s part of why we pay taxes and use fees. Some people never learn.
18Here’s how those heavily armed militia men figured as their strategy…just in case the other side may also be armed:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/04/15/1292089/–Update-ChickenSh-t-TeaParty-Militia-Leader-Richard-Mack-Planned-To-Use-Woman-as-Human-Shields?detail=email#
19People who want to start a shooting war with the United States and kill federal agents need to find out what a real war is like.
The cure for militia snipers on the overpass is real military action. It’s an armed revolt; it needs hard action. These guys do not learn manners and law-abiding behavior when treated “reasonably” and slowly in the slow grinding of the law. Only a solid smackdown will work.
Of course, I am one of Uncle Sam’s Misguided Children. We do tend to think that way.
20Snipers on overpasses? No problem, Cobra gunships can handle that in seconds. A drone strike can fix up Bundys “ranch” real easy. A few Ma Deuces can counter their silly ARs without any real effort. Survivors can be sentenced to long prison time for endangering women and children. Of course those out-of-staters won’t be around forever and once they go home Bundy is done.
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