Qn Jan. 8, 2018, the trial room on the seventh floor of the Las Vegas, Nevada, federal courthouse was packed with over a dozen reporters and at least five times as many spectators. At the front, facing the bench, was a 71-year-old rancher named Cliven Bundy. He didn’t look well; his ankles were shackled and his back hunched. Four teeth had recently been pulled. He had been on trial for eight weeks and imprisoned for nearly two years. In a bit of trial theater, he was wearing blue jail-issued clothes with “detainee” stamped on the back. Nearby sat two of his sons, Ryan and Ammon, as well as another ally, a self-styled militiaman named Ryan Payne...On the face of it, the case was the federal government’s to lose. Bundy’s supporters had pointed loaded weapons at federal agents, and the rancher owed the American people more than $1 million in unpaid grazing fees. The Bundys’ argument hinged in part on their belief that the federal government cannot legally own land — a fringe interpretation of the U.S. Constitution unlikely to stand up in court against a century of case law. The verdict promised a final reckoning for the Bundys, the BLM and Western public lands U.S. District Judge Gloria Navarro took her seat overlooking the room. “The court finds that a universal sense of justice has been violated,” she said flatly into her microphone. But she wasn’t talking to the Bundys; her disappointment was directed at the U.S. attorneys, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and, by extension, the BLM. She was dismissing the case, with prejudice, meaning that it could not be brought again and would provide no answer to the question of whether or not the Bundys had broken the law. Instead, there remained only lingering questions: How did it come to be that, at 10:50 a.m., Cliven Bundy strode out of the courthouse, unhunched, unshackled, in a gray blazer, blue jeans and white cowboy hat — a free man? And what role did the government play in creating an anti-public-lands hero, through its own bungled attempts to take him down?...MORE
It would have been helpful to the reader if links had been provided to the documents and Facebook pages referred to.
Here are some of the links:
The Ian Bartrum paper is Searching for Cliven Bundy: The Constitution and Public Lands
The 2002 IG Report is Disquieting State of Disorder: An Assessment of Department of the Interior Law Enforcement
The two Dan Love IG reports can be found here
The Wooten Memo is here.
6 comments:
An interesting look into the mind of a progressive "enterprise reporter," that's for sure. And, anyone not cleaving to the presevationist line is "anti-public-lands." Remember that meme, kids, because it will be used.
Reminds of the never-ending narrative about farmers and ranchers being uneducated and illiterate.
...all that these 'more educated & literate' reporters had to do is look up the documents of the case that were posted to show how much Bundy really owed... as a result of the gov't refusing his money unless he agreed to give up his water rights.
More of us need to comment on these articles when possible in order to counterpoint the lies and provide links to the omitted facts... you won't convince the close-minded but others who happen to read it can decide for themselves.
This isn't just about Bundy or grazing ...but all agriculture is being demonized by the media and gov't ...and the billionaires in Silicon valley are driving the anti-ag narrative, as well as the surveillance and abuse.
We need to go to the FB pages of both r-wing & mainstream media to counter the false narratives with facts...
...or just say nothing and let the one-sided narrative be what the public hears when they go to the polls in the next election.
Don't stay silent and let someone else with an agenda tell your story for you.
All the FBI, Facebook & Uranium One scandals are tied to one high profile case -- the Malheur protest.
Two great comments above. I hope the readers keep in mind the amount of time I spend just finding the articles, with precious little time to comment. For instance, on this particular article I spend several hours finding the links,
I simply cannot comment on each article posted and must rely on the discerning reader to filter through the chaff. And if I only posted articles I agreed with, there would be very few posts on this blog.
I also believe we should be aware of how the msm is covering the issues and events that are important to us. So I will keep posting them here, no matter their political bias.
Mr DuBois: Sir, We DO appreciate your efforts at accumulating all the varied info on events/happening in our beautiful west. Your efforts should be admired by more folks out here.
The contrast between honest perspectives is quite stark. There though becomes a time that a spade is called a spade. The reporter's perspective here is akin to reporting on a dumpster fire whilst throwing a wee bit o' gasoline to the event to distort the story to their steadfast readers. As usual.... HCN is a propaganda tool of the enemy. Thanks for pointing this fact out periodically to your readers. In addition we should mock their methods...and spit on them.
Frank, you're awesome and I don't know where you get the energy to post & write the articles that you do... I have trouble keeping up with you.
A cattle prod needs to be used on your readers ...including myself... in taking what info is shared here and other ag-related sites and use it to comment on mainstream news sites when they report false narratives.
Some points to counterpoint this article saying that the tortoise is protected in Bunkerville to mitigate the growth in Vegas.
...why take even more farm & ranch lands out of production in order to mitigate the farm and ranch land that is already lost to urban development?
Why not mitigate by returning the underutilized urban areas back into natural environments?
...Since the tortoise protection in the 90's ...timeline ariel photos show that the protected land has transformed from ranches to golf communities and casinos.
...BLM no longer has all of the land titles it previously acquired from ranchers...
...Along I-15 from Bunkerville towards Las Vegas there are 5 big city-like freeway interchanges in the middle of nowhere that stretch from 170 interchange to 84.
A BLM document stated that urban sprawl was the most harmful threat to public lands... mainly due to recreation damage ...made no mention of grazing.
They are worried about a turtle near Las Vegas, but they should be worried about the increasing size of the "bath tub" ring in their source of drinking water in the lake. Unrestrained expansion of the cities is much more a threat to humanity than the demise of all the turtles anywhere. It's water which feeds the world, not cities paved in concrete. It's farmers and ranchers who use this water to provide that last meal you had or do you think poor souls that mana still falls from a heaven in which you do not believe?
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