A joint House and Senate committee of the Idaho legislature listened to an appeal by members of a group that want Idaho to absorb most of Oregon. The request is a longshot -- requiring approval of the legislatures of both states as well as Congress -- but the invitation from Idaho lawmakers may have been the biggest win so far for the group, Move Oregon's Border for a Greater Idaho, the Idaho Press reported. Idaho state Rep. Barbara Ehardt, R-Idaho Falls, helped make the April 12 meeting possible. "Why not have the conversation? It’s an intriguing idea. There absolutely are benefits to the idea," she said. "It’s not necessarily something that would happen right away." But she noted movements of citizens in Eastern Washington and Northern California that also would like to become part of a "Greater Idaho." The founder of Move Oregon's Border for a Greater Idaho, Mike McCarter, said in his presentation that the "boundary between Oregon and Idaho is outdated because it doesn’t match the cultural boundary between urban communities who like Portland’s leadership and rural communities that are traditional, family-oriented, self-reliant." He pointed out the benefits for Idahoans as well, including more state tax money, access to the International Port of Coos Bay, new industries and the chance to "alleviate future overcrowding" in Idaho...MORE
THE WESTERNER
Issues of concern to people who live in the west: property rights, water rights, endangered species, livestock grazing, energy production, wilderness and western agriculture. Plus a few items on western history, western literature and the sport of rodeo... Frank DuBois served as the NM Secretary of Agriculture from 1988 to 2003. DuBois is a former legislative assistant to a U.S. Senator, a Deputy Assistant Secretary of Interior, and is the founder of the DuBois Rodeo Scholarship.
Monday, April 19, 2021
Idaho legislature considers absorbing part of Oregon
A joint House and Senate committee of the Idaho legislature listened to an appeal by members of a group that want Idaho to absorb most of Oregon. The request is a longshot -- requiring approval of the legislatures of both states as well as Congress -- but the invitation from Idaho lawmakers may have been the biggest win so far for the group, Move Oregon's Border for a Greater Idaho, the Idaho Press reported. Idaho state Rep. Barbara Ehardt, R-Idaho Falls, helped make the April 12 meeting possible. "Why not have the conversation? It’s an intriguing idea. There absolutely are benefits to the idea," she said. "It’s not necessarily something that would happen right away." But she noted movements of citizens in Eastern Washington and Northern California that also would like to become part of a "Greater Idaho." The founder of Move Oregon's Border for a Greater Idaho, Mike McCarter, said in his presentation that the "boundary between Oregon and Idaho is outdated because it doesn’t match the cultural boundary between urban communities who like Portland’s leadership and rural communities that are traditional, family-oriented, self-reliant." He pointed out the benefits for Idahoans as well, including more state tax money, access to the International Port of Coos Bay, new industries and the chance to "alleviate future overcrowding" in Idaho...MORE
The Great Rooster Fight
The Scribes
The Great Rooster Fight
View from the Top of the World
By Stephen L. Wilmeth
If enough
water passes under the bridge, the great divide is recognized by more than
wrinkles.
So, it was
this week when I was looking at some poorer doing calves that our youngest
granddaughter is tending. She has done a great job and her mama talks about
hearing her opening the gate into her little set of corrals and banging the
bucket on the feeder as she spreads the ration for her red coated patients as
early as 5:30 in the morning. The calves have turned a big circle in the past
two weeks.
We are
proud of her diligence.
I was
thinking about that and other things as I climbed the little rise to her pens
on Thursday afternoon. I had brought her some hay and wanted to visit with her
about her task. That’s when the fight started.
Appearing
out of cloud of dust (literally), the golden devil ran to the middle of the
trail, rose up to his full rooster glory, and crowed at me.
Don’t
you pull that nonsense with me!
My remarks
went unheeded. In fact, he came at me and in the same motion I kicked dirt in
his face and really got after him. That only invigorated him as he tried to get
his spurs out front, and shadow boxed at me in midair.
D*mn,
you!
He remained
ruffled up, crowing and clucking like a banshee, and planted firmly in the
middle of the path as I retreated to my pickup to get my shovel. That dadgum
rooster wasn’t going to bluff me!
But, there
was no bluff.
When I got
within social distancing of him, he came at me with a vengeance, raising cane,
and flashing those spurs. He was in midair when I connected with a left-handed
swing on the back side of the shovel and knocked him sideways. He no more than
hit the ground than he was coming back as I swung back in a right-handed
counter sending feathers flying this time with a full edge hit.
Back and
forth, back and forth the battle raged as he had me backing off that slope in
wide eyed disbelief.
It was in
that time frame I swung, missed him, and lost my balance. Over backward (a full
gainer!), I went off that incline.
KaBang!
By golly,
it rang my bell as I tried to get ready for his next move trying to get my
shovel in a defensive position as I laid there flat on my back with my feet uphill.
All I could think about was trying to keep him off my face with those spurs
just a’flying like a bronc rider.
He had
prevailed, though. There I was, the great foe, sprawled out in the dirt trying
to get some air in my lungs. He had won the round convincingly. Like a prize
fighter he shook himself, looked again at his accomplishment, turned clucking
to himself, and left.
Dang,
I hope nobody saw that …
The
Scribes
The press
has done a study on themselves.
Their
problem is there is no trust across the deep chasm of their work, and,
obviously, someone must have told them it is an issue. As with all
self-assessments, there was no real objectivity. The study wasn’t presented in
any scientific form. The executive summary certainly would not have suggested
any self-incrimination even it had been done. They did come up with what they
are describing as core principles, though. There were five of them.
The first
was they believe the public expects them to watch over leaders and the
powerful. Next, they are to elaborate on behalf of the voices that go silent.
The third tenet is society works better with knowledge out in the open. Number
four was the more facts people have the closer to the truth issues become.
Lastly, it is their duty to spotlight community difficulties so they can be
solved.
Really, is
that what you came up with?
It is hard
to refrain from cynicism. A first question asked would be why did it take a
study to come up with those findings? Those should have been the first lessons
learned in Scribedom 101. Moreover, those should be standards that are
fundamental in the character of the individuals involved.
Their
grandmothers should have drilled every one of those points into their hearts
and minds before they even thought of attending those bastions of the false
science of institutional journalism. The honest points are much more simplistic
and, in fact, more succinct. Their study could be compressed into three.
As practiced today, their body of
work is of the press, by the press, and for the press regardless of words
otherwise.
View
from the Top of the World
Of course,
that is a play on the words of Lincoln’s famous Gettysburg Address. The President
had actually borrowed the gist of the wording from a Theodore Parker sermon
given in 1858. Lincoln’s law partner, William H. Herndon, returning from Boston
gave him a copy of the Parker address and witnessed Lincoln marking with a pencil
the line reading Democracy is direct self-government, over all the people,
by all the people, for all the people.
Given the
suggestion the press is, in effect, using the concept in their own actions,
they would probably be aghast knowing they are being compared to the idea of
being associated with a translation of the Bible. Parker, too, borrowed the
phrasing. It came from the prologue of the translation John Wycliffe did back
in 1384.
The
Bible is for the government of the People, by the People, and for the People.
Having
survived the Great Rooster Fight, I am strongly reminded that all of us can
stand a little comeuppance and thoughtful reawakening. The operative words are
… We, the People.
Stephen L. Wilmeth is a rancher form southern New
Mexico. “Where is that danged rooster anyway?”
Supreme Court passes on Second Amendment cases challenging lifetime gun ownership ban
By not taking the appeals, the nation's highest court let stand a series of lower court rulings that prohibited people convicted of driving under the influence, making false statements on tax returns and selling counterfeit cassette tapes from owning a gun.
The decisions Monday, which were handed down without explanation, are the latest in a series of instances in which the Supreme Court has skirted Second Amendment questions. The high court last issued major guns rights rulings in 2008 and 2010, cases that struck down handgun restrictions in the District of Columbia and Chicago.
Gun rights groups vowed to continue to press the issue.
...Several of the court's conservatives signaled in recent years that they were interested in revisiting the issue, and it's not clear why they chose not to do so. Four conservative justices have expressed a desire to address outstanding Second Amendment questions – enough to take a case but one vote short of the five needed to corral a majority. Many expected Associate Justice Amy Coney Barrett, seated last fall, to provide that fifth vote...MORE
America’s New Pastime: The Politicization of Everything
P.J. O'Rourke
Many of us haven’t talked much to our families this past year. You could blame the pandemic for this (or America’s response), but it’s that every holiday brunch, every Wednesday Zoom call, every banal group text all get blown up by politics.
Ubiquitous political ideology is the meta-virus interwoven within COVID — it invades each facet of our lives as we cherish our political identities like swaddled newborn babies. With myopic religious fervor, The Left of Right worships either Fauci or Trump, readied with our fangs out, weaponized with our rage-bait sound bites if someone dares disagree with our curated perspective.
Our legendary Editor in Chief P.J. O’Rourke reminds us of the vitality of political distancing in 2021. He notes that as Washington’s shadow grows and the machine of politics curdles into a golem dictating everything from mask mandates to the reopening of schools, that our humanity and freedoms will continue to wither.
Right now, the most dangerous thing about politics is… politics.
Politics are dangerous to everybody. This is true if you’re scraping spray-painted obscenities off your Trump/Pence yard sign and wearing your MAGA cap at half-mast in mourning. And this is also true if you think AOC and the Green New Dealers have just dealt you a straight flush. (Flush twice – it’s a long way from Congress to your lunch bucket.)
Of course, politics have always been dangerous. Politics are how it’s decided who controls government… Whoever controls government controls the force of the law… And the force of the law is a lethal force.
Fail to pay a parking ticket and you’ll be fined. Refuse to pay the fine and you’ll be jailed. Try to escape from jail and you’ll be shot. Every law, every government rule and regulation, no matter how trivial or picayune, is obeyed at the point of a gun.
That gun is called politics. And what makes politics so dangerous right now is that Americans – Left, Right, and Center (if there even is a Center anymore) – have come to believe that the answer to every question is political:
- How much money should we have? How much money can we have?
- What’s a dollar worth?
- How many dollars must we pay employees?
- Who are the employees required to be? Who is allowed to employ them?
- Who’s a real American?
- Who’s just pretending?
- Who gets to exercise free speech? What if they speak too freely?
- What should be taught in school? What should be believed in church?
- Which doctor can we go to?
- Which car can we drive? Or do we have to take the train?
- And what should the weather be like?
Saturday, April 17, 2021
Mexican cartel threatens deputies, Dannels says
State government and law enforcement in Arizona are facing similar issues:
On Friday, Gov. Doug Ducey announced Arizona would take matters into its own hands regarding the onslaught of undocumented migrants pouring into the state unless something is done in Washington, D.C. Ducey’s statement came after the Arizona Department of Public Safety spotted 20 undocumented migrants in Chandler Friday. The state agency said it was rebuffed by both the Border Patrol and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement when they asked for help. The migrants were released into Chandler.
Local law enforcement is being threatened by the Mexican cartels on the one hand, and are being "rebuffed" by federal law enforcement agencies on the other hand. This means local law enforcement is threatened by both entities, i.e. action by the Mexican cartels and inaction by our own feds.
RANGE magazine has been reporting on the exploits of billionaire Hansjorg Wyss while mainstream media dozed
Although Wyss appears to have been largely unknown to the mainstream media until recently, RANGE magazine’s plucky investigative reporter, Dave Skinner, has written numerous articles, beginning in the Winter of 2014, tracking Wyss’ enormous donations and dubious activities.
Loyal RANGE readers will be alarmed that Wyss is currently poised to take the helm of one of the largest media organizations in the world. In an article dated March 27, the Chicago Tribune reports:
“An octogenarian Swiss billionaire who makes his home in Wyoming and has donated hundreds of millions to environmental causes is a surprise new player in the bidding for Tribune Publishing, the major newspaper chain that until recently seemed destined to end up in the hands of a New York hedge fund.
Hansjörg Wyss (pronounced Hans-yorg Vees), the former CEO of medical device manufacturer Synthes, said in an interview Friday that he had agreed to join with Maryland hotelier Stewart W. Bainum Jr. in a bid for Tribune Publishing, an offer that could upend Alden Global Capital’s plan to take full ownership of the company.
Wyss, who has given away some of his fortune to help preserve wildlife habitats in Wyoming, Montana and Maine, said he was motivated to join the Tribune bid by his belief in the need for a robust press.
‘I have an opportunity to do 500 times more than what I’m doing now,’ he said.'”
If Wyss becomes the owner of Tribune Publishing, doing “500 times more” than he is doing now portends badly for American ranchers, farmers, and small towns throughout the West.
Dave Skinner’s Winter 2014 article, “Patterns on the Landscape” revealed Wyss’ involvement with a number of anti-grazing, anti-resource development individuals and NGO’s working in concert to radically remake the West, including the now-defunct Western Progress, John Podesta’s Center for American Progress, the Soros-connected New Venture Fund and countless Democrat candidates. Skinner reports:
“Federal Elections Commission records show Wyss made about $38,000 in political contributions between 1998 and 2002, all to wilderness-friendly Democrats or PACs. However, as a Swiss citizen, Wyss cannot legally make direct political contributions to either parties, PACs or politicians without a green card and permanent U.S. residence. Today at age 78 and $12.4 billion net worth (according to Bloomberg Billionaires Index), Wyss is either Pennsylvania’s biggest billionaire, or Switzerland’s second biggest.”
Skinner continues:
“After Western Progress closed its doors, in 2009 the Wyss Foundation donated $400,000 to “public charity” CAP [Center for American Progress].
Alongside the CAP funding went an even $1 million to the Tides Foundation.
But there’s more. In 2011, the Hansjorg Wyss Foundation donated $1.325 million to CAP, and $1 million to New Venture Fund.”
Throughout his reporting on Wyss and other dark money types, Dave Skinner has made the case that massive funding and political activism, aka “astroturfing,” are driving the policies that are hurting Western agriculture and property rights. See “Identify Your Enemies” (Winter 2015).
“The Green Insiders” (Spring 2015) details Wyss’ entanglement in medical malpractice through his medical company, Synthes. Synthes was found to be responsible for deaths related to the off-label and experimental use of his products on patients. And there’s more, Skinner writes:
“In July, Washington Examiner reporter Richard Pollock found a mysterious line item in the disclosure forms for White House special adviser John Podesta: $87,000 in consulting from “HJW Foundation”—HJW being Mr. Wyss, of course. Bottom line: A small affair involving illegal human experimentation, deaths, federal prosecution, four jail sentences, and a fine of $23.8 million, as well as after-the-fact malpractice settlements.”
Subsequently, Johnson & Johnson purchased Synthes in a deal that produced “almost $10 billion in assets” for Wyss.
And, it turns out, the extremist Center for Biological Diversity is one of Wyss’ pet beneficiaries. Skinner reports:
“CBD director Kieran Suckling told the Inquirer that Hans Wyss ‘liked that we were both nimble and aggressive.’”
"Money Talks, Freedom Walks" (Summer 2015) connects the dots between Wyss, Bill Gates and a gaggle of NGO's bent on the destruction of Western resource development. Skinner gives an accounting of the astonishing donations Wyss has given to the likes of Trout Unlimited, Western Rivers, The Nature Conservancy and many others.
In “Hans-n-Harry’s Garden of Astroturf” (Fall 2015) Dave Skinner brought to light Wyss’ sizeable donations to national monuments campaigns in Nevada. Wyss’ generous “sprinkling” of dollars was used to create the illusion of popular support for national monument land grabs, where there was in fact significant grassroots opposition from the people of Nevada.
In "Monumental Megabucks" (Winter 2017)Dave Skinner explored the machinations behind a political battle that, like a recurring nightmare, has returned to southeastern Utah in the form of a massive national monument. Biden recently reignited the war of “Bears Ears” with his promise not simply to “restore” it to Obama’s designation of 1.3 million acres, but to expand it to nearly 2 million acres—or more if the greens get their way. And Wyss has been in the fray all along. Skinner writes:
“Although you probably have never heard, seen or read of him, this man, Swiss billionaire Hansjorg Wyss, has done more to encourage the creation of new national monuments than any person on Earth. How? He opened his wallet, giving untold and mostly unknown millions to environmental groups for a spin campaign in support of President Obama’s use of the Antiquities Act.”
Philanthropist, zealot or monster? The deeper you dig into the mystique of Hansjorg Wyss, the more monstrous he appears. In May of 2018, Truth in media reported an incident that has been otherwise buried by mainstream media. It reads:
“Victim advocates are slamming Harvard University, the Clinton Foundation and John Podesta’s think-tank for their silence over an ongoing investigation by New Jersey prosecutors for the brutal sexual assault that a woman alleges was committed by their donor, Swiss billionaire Hansjorg Wyss.
Wyss, who contributes millions to many high-profile liberal causes, is a financial donor to Harvard, the Clinton Foundation and Podesta’s Center for American Progress. Last fall, prosecutors in Morris Township, New Jersey, opened an investigation into an alleged brutal 2011 sexual assault of Jacqueline Long, then an employee of Wyss’ foundation.”
RANGE has taken great strides in warning the public about Hansjorg Wyss, his tainted activities, radical alliances, and intention to do “500 times more” than he has already done. Exposed by RANGE magazine’s deep diving reporter, Dave Skinner, this “green” Swiss billionaire is on the verge of becoming a media mogul with even greater power to “remake” America and the West. Now is the time for all who love the American Cowboy and the Western way of life, to sound their own alarms.
Friday, April 16, 2021
White House reverses course on refugee cap after Democratic eruption
Colorado ranchers fight ballot proposal they say would be devastating to ag industry
Saja Hindi
Colorado ranchers and farmers are fighting against a 2022 proposed ballot measure that they say is yet another attack on the state’s $47 billion agriculture industry.
Initiative 16, a section of which is referred to as “Wilbur’s Law,” adds livestock and fish to the state’s animal cruelty law and redefines what constitutes a “sexual act with an animal,” including practices often used in breeding and animal husbandry. It also requires that slaughtering of livestock only occur if an animal has lived a quarter of its natural lifespan — estimated at 20 years for a cow, for example — which would vastly change current practices, considering cattle are often butchered well before they turn 3.
The website for the ballot initiative, called Protect Animals from Unnecessary Suffering and Exploitation, or PAUSE, says it will extend animal welfare rights to all farm animals and that there is “no rational reason to exempt farmed animals from basic abuse laws that currently exist to protect our pets.”
“After seeing with our own eyes, thousands of chickens on a Colorado organic free range farm left without food and severely abused, we knew there was a discrepancy between the public image and the reality of some farms,” the PAUSE website said.
The two designated representatives of the initiative, Alexander Sage of Broomfield and Brent Johannes of Boulder, did not return The Post’s multiple requests for comment. They would have to gather 124,632 valid voter signatures to get it on the November 2022 ballot.
A coalition of livestock and farming groups called Coloradans for Animal Care opposes the possible ballot measure and challenged the decisions of the state’s Title Board with the state Supreme Court on Wednesday. The coalition believes the title includes “political catchphrases” meant to sway voters. Its members also argue that the proposal deals with at least two subjects when ballot measures can only have one, and that the Title Board’s rules are misleading.
Carlyle Currier, a rancher from Molina and president of the Colorado Farm Bureau, said it simply on the coalition’s website: It’s the “most radical and extreme ballot initiative Colorado has ever seen.” Already, Logan County commissioners signed a resolution opposing the initiative, according to the Sterling-Journal Advocate.
Colorado Livestock Association CEO Bill Hammerich said not only would it hurt the state’s agriculture industry, it’d affect meat and meat product exports, which make up nearly 14% of Colorado’s exports.
“Talk about devastation,” Hammerich said. “Our rural communities would be totally devastated by this.” He added that the Front Range communities would also feel the effects in the long run, because they wouldn’t be able to get local meat.
Specialty producer Jennifer Melichar, who owns Boulder Beef and ranches in La Salle and Longmont, said the slaughtering age restriction is particularly harmful. It’s not financially feasible to feed cows for that long, said Melichar, who generally processes her animals at 18 months.
Not to mention, she added, if ranchers wait that long to process meat, it’ll be tough and flavorless, and consumers would see more fat in the meat. Melichar castrates the steers on her ranch at birth to keep the meat tender, which she said would also be prohibited.
Worker safety is another concern, said northeastern Colorado dairy farmer Mary Kraft. Her farmhands artificially inseminate cows — which would be against the law if the ballot measure passes. Doing so eliminates the need for herd bulls, which are notoriously dangerous, she said, and keeps the cows producing milk.
...The Colorado Veterinary Medical Association is also against the measure, writing that it would have “significant, extremely negative impacts on Colorado’s animals, their owners and the veterinary profession.”
“Every veterinarian takes an oath to protect animal health and welfare, prevent and relieve animal suffering, promote public health, and advance medical knowledge,” it said. “Initiative 16 threatens all of those commitments.”
The group worries that veterinarians will face animal cruelty charges for performing routine procedures like spaying and neutering if the measure is passed as written. PAUSE supporters do not believe this is the case, according to the FAQ on their website.