May 18, 2014

Sagebrush Rebellion Renewed: Bundy Ranch Incident Before and Beyond

The Bundy Ranch incident was not the first time westerners living the Western states stood up to federal unconstitutional authority. First a short recap ...
The sheriff of Clark County, Nevada did not stand up for the constitutional rights of Bundy and those who supported him. You can see pictures of physical abuse at the Bundy website.

Bundy Riders
The other action of the event at the standoff against the BLM agents was that the front ranks of those siding with Bundy who moved forward at a slow and steady pace to get the BLM agents to release his cattle, were on horseback and not armed; although people in the farther ranks and along the flank at the hilltop, like the militia were - just in case the BLM agents opened fire. The best part is there wasn't violent confrontation on either side; at least when the ranchers were in the process of releasing cattle. That was not so when law enforcement initially barricaded the roads and harassed protestors.
There is much that was untold by mainstream media, and FOX reporting was not much better.
People that just went with mainstream political media reports fail to realize the whole story behind the confrontation, some ignorantly angry against Bundy for not paying the required fees. Just the fact that the federal government causes prices of everything to go up, this should be an example for them; and the reason why beef has climbed so steadily in price per pound combined with a stubborn federal government who refuses to refrain from foreign oil dependency and allow responsible oil drilling in the United States. There is enough to supply the US and still sell to other nations. The other problem is that the EPA has taken four years in “studies” before approving a fourth oil refinery needed for so long to meet demand. That will be part of the story behind the Bundy Ranch Standoff against the federal government that has become the tyrant that the Founder tried to avoid. Of course, it all could have been avoided if constitutional law had been enforced all the while.
The public was unaware that at the same time the Bundy situation was occurring, 50 officials from nine Western states had gathered in Utah to discuss a state takeover of a significant portion of federally owned land in the American West region. Through the EPA, the federal government has hindered public use of land in one way or another and even violated private property rights, which is another key item addressed by the Founders. First let's be clear – the federal government does not “own” any land, because from the beginning each state (former colonies) had its own government: governor and state legislation. Each state is sovereign, but because they have been ratified into a union of states, they MUST adhere to and enforce the articles and amendments of the Constitution of the United States, put together by representatives and senators from each state. Land in Wyoming belongs to the state of Wyoming who is supposed to be in charge of it For the People. The EPA, like the federal IRS, has become too powerful and has thrown the Constitution into the wind.
Contrary to belief, constitutionalists and conservatives want to keep the air and water clean, and try to monitor and maintain natural resources through regulations based upon common sense and true scientific analysis and procedures. The EPA has become the strong arm of radical environmentalists who are as hypocritical and devious as their political counterparts; they will demonstrate and act violently towards anyone who is against their agenda in the form of environmentalism – but they are organizations who have accumulated wealth and a gathering of useful idiots.
Theodore Roosevelt and John Muir
Theodore Roosevelt was the president who pushed for national parks and sparked the interest in states setting aside land for parks, for the benefit of the people who could enjoy nature in its purity without encroachment of civilization threatening it. He and others like him had good intentions, but as time went by the federal government, because those operating it like to spend and spend some more; found a way to bring more money into the treasury. They began to lease public land for the benefit of the federal government in several ways, like cattle grazing, allowing oil companies to set up drill rigs, mining and logging operations. The funds that went to the US Treasury was in reality, money made on land that belonged to the individual states. Federal lands cover about one-third of the United States. Those operating our federal government have the belief and attitude that it belongs to them, and not the People – the “public”.
In the case of Nevada, where the Bundy Ranch is located, the Feds (BLM) “own” more than two-thirds of the land in the state. According to the Department of Interior, there are almost 18,000 grazing permits and leases. Recently, the federal government allowed the son of Senator Harry Reid to swing a deal with a Chinese solar company to purchase some of that “public” land; instead of leasing it at only one-third real estate value. This proves two things: that as he has been involved/accused before, Senator Reid is abusing the authority of his office – and it is easy to waste other people's money. Worse, China, a known aggressor nation against United States, is buying up as much real estate it can around the globe. To lease real estate to a foreign entity is one thing, but the federal government has no right, without congressional/people approval to sell out to foreign nations and entities. The United States is a land of the People and for the People, and made up of 50 sovereign states who have agreed to abide by the Constitution of the United States and its amendments. Which means that states like California, New York, Illinois, et cetera, who do not abide by the Second Amendment are in violation – and it is the responsibility of the federal government via the US Supreme Court to say so and jack up those states. That goes for other articles and amendments in the Constitution that state governments violate. If they are part of the unification of states to create a nation – they must all abide by those laws. Yet the federal (central) government has no authority over land within a particular state; other than that which is mentioned in constitutional law. 
Joan B., Illinois sent me this GIF that is an animated map showing the growth of the US as states were added from territories. It also shows expansion where the federal government commandeered land even when the territory became states.
[Click to enlarge]
The same media that so fervently spreads the Obama propaganda and helps to stymy the facts concerning the myriad of scandals across his two terms (to date); is the same media that doe not tell you that the federal war against Western states has been going on for decades. Before I get into that, the following video by Bill Whittle calls that political shuffling “gaslighting” …
What the EPA is doing within the Obama administration, to be fair, is nothing new, and has been going on for decades, especially since Ronald Reagan left office. It came to a head concerning federal government commandeering state lands from 20% to 80% depending upon what state. It was a movement that came to be called the Sagebrush Rebellion.
Occurring in the 1970s and 1980s, supporters of this movement wanted more state and local control over these lands, if not outright transfer of federal lands to state and local authorities and/or privatization.
It is the old fight between state and federal governments.
Ronald Reagan declared himself a sagebrush rebel in an August 1980 campaign speech in Salt Lake City:
I happen to be one who cheers and supports the Sagebrush Rebellion. Count me in as a rebel.
The struggle that Reagan faced with radical conservation organizations continues today, the Bundy Ranch incident being only one that had national coverage. GW Bush worked around restrictive laws instead of reforming them or working with Congress to reform them. Just as he ignored the movement to replace the income tax system. According to the Wikipedia entry:
Federal holding of public lands was originally an accident of history. Among the first pieces of legislation under the US Constitution was the Northwest Ordinance, which was designed to dispose of lands the federal government held after state claims were conceded in the Northwest Territories (now Michigan, Wisconsin, Ohio, Illinois, and Indiana). In order to encourage settlement of western lands, Congress passed the Morrell Act in 1862, granting parcels in 40-acre increments to homesteaders who could maintain a living on land for a period of time. Congress also made huge land grants to various railroads working to complete a transcontinental rail system. Much of these latter grants intentionally included mineral and timber-rich lands so that the railroads could get financing to build. Again, the hypothesis was that the railroads would sell off the land to get money. Ultimately, however, it turned out that much land west of the Missouri River was not ecologically suited for homesteading because of mountainous terrain, poor soils, lack of available water and other ecological barriers to significant settlement. By the early 20th century, the federal government held significant portions of most western states that had simply not been claimed for any use. Conservationists prevailed upon President Theodore Roosevelt to set aside lands for forest conservation and for special scientific or natural history interest. Much land still remained unclaimed even after such reserves were initially set up. The Department of the Interior held millions of acres in the western states (with Arizona and New Mexico joining the union by 1913). President Hoover proposed to deed the surface rights to the unappropriated lands to the states in 1932, but the states complained that the lands had been overgrazed and would, in other ways, impose a burden on, Great Depression, cash-strapped state budgets.
There were stands against illegal federal ownership of state and local lands before the Bundy incident, like on July 4th, 1994, when Dick Carver, a Nye County commissioner plowed open a road that the National Forest Service had declared closed as a statement supporting county supremacy over the federal government. Carver and his supporters had insisted that the federal government's “ownership” of 93% of the land in Nye County was illegal.
William Perry Pendley is the President of Mountain States Legal Foundation and wrote a paper and made a speech at a Hillsdale College event that thoroughly explains how the federal government has commandeered land for its own gain and sometimes to appease the extreme environmental movement organizers. Mr. Pendley is the author of War on the West: Government Tyranny on America's Great Frontier and Sagebrush Rebel: Reagan's Battle with Environmental Extremists and Why It Matters Today. Pendley speech quotes, April 23, 2014):
A typical way these policies get implemented is for environmental interest groups to sue a government agency under either the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) or the Endangered Species Act (ESA), and for the agency then to settle the lawsuit in the interest group's favor. Sometimes – as in a 2008 lawsuit filed against the U.S. Forest Service by three environmental groups for their complaints (in that case paying out nearly $20,000). Just last month, Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt filed a lawsuit against the Interior Department and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service over such “sue and settle” tactics following an ESA lawsuit by a group called Wild Earth Guardians that sought to restrict land use for agriculture, oil and gas drilling, wind farms, and other activities in a five-state area – Oklahoma, Texas, Colorado, New Mexico, and Kansas – inhabited by the lesser prairie chicken. …
Following a recent report by the Government Accountability Office on how NEPA is being used to delay projects on federal lands, Dan Kish of the Institute for Energy Research characterized NEPA's effect as “paralysis by analysis”, pointing out that “environmental impact statements, which were expected to take no more than 12 months 30 years ago, now take an estimated 4.6 years to complete”. … Since its passage in 1969, not a single new oil refinery has been built. … Today the Keystone XL Pipeline … is only the most publicized of the promising projects, in terms of both economic prosperity and national defense
The federal government is its own worse enemy, at least those that operate it – OUR government.
The senior administrator (Dr. Al Armendariz) of Region Six gave a good example of the political atmosphere and agenda of the Obama organization back in 2009, when he cited the Roman Empire as the inspiration for his style of operation:
This is the attitude of the Obama administration, where they are ruthless to their own citizens while condescending to enemies of free people like rogue nations and the Muslim Brotherhood; as well as invaders that cross our southern border.
Only the people united can stand up and deter and remove tyranny of this and other natures. If the people allow themselves to only know what the mainstream political media and what politicians say in the federal government; disregarding constitutional law – it will continue to progress (why the call themselves “progressives”) further into socialism and statism until there is no turning back for your children or your children's children will be turning in their parents to the state because they are not complying with or loyal to the great government in Washington, DC.
Freedom is not always lost suddenly, it most often happens in increments.

Save the Republic

Be a responsible voter, insist upon objective media reporting or ignore them, and spread the word that constitutional law is the land of the land, home of the once free and hopefully still brave.

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