Sch**f Show
No, Let’s not Party
Sh*t Show
By Stephen L. Wilmeth
The
common and continual mischiefs of the spirit of party are sufficient to make it
the interest and duty of a wise people to discourage and restrain it.
George Washington, September
19, 1796
Don’t
kid yourself … the price of milk wasn’t negotiated in good faith with words. It
was hammered out with pickaxes.
Bob Coppersmith, September 3,
1979
Hey, Ese … Abrazos, no balazos
Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador,
August 15, 2018
If we’re not careful, loserthink
would have us believe that every Trump supporter is a bigoted racist, addicts
should be responsible for fixing the opioid epidemic, and that your
relationship fell apart simply because you chewed with your mouth open.
Scott Adams, November 5, 2019
The fact of
the matter is these widely divergent quotes aren’t just confused or jumbled
ramblings. They are, in one way or another, tied to the greatest threat to our
independence. Political parties have not served our better interests. They have
never united us. They have divided us. They have suppressed singular voices of
supreme importance. They have supported differences rather than common
strengths. They have elevated extremes. They have grouped us into tribes rather
than families.
In fact, they
are hastening the accelerating march to open chaos.
The
Sch**f Show
Let’s see a
show of hands.
How many of
you hinterland minions have a growing suspicion that, if political parties
aren’t unconstitutional, they are certainly extra constitutional? This Schiff
Show is leaving little doubt there is no intention of accepting anything short
of annihilation of this duly elected president. There is no longer any
inference of what they think of their opposition.
That once veiled
suggestion has become an outright, in your face party platform plank. It ranks
right up there with global warming, migration corridors, and LGBTQ2-4D
priorities.
Stand
aside, America!
These elite, puff dragons are in the driver
seat and they are not just forming to our front but attacking headlong. Furthermore,
we are discovering there isn’t a moderating force. There is no acting adult in
this mix.
At least
there is not one influential enough, or wise enough to rise out of the mob and halt
the growing conflagration. The party mobs, not individual leaders, are the reckoning
force. This Washington crew is indeed covered with mud and slime.
The Sch**f show is the current soap
opera of political hoopla and orchestrated polarization. What is the citizenry
of California’s 28th congressional district smoking in obediently
sending that fellow back to Washington every two years?
It isn’t just us, the sweaty
masses, that stink.
The Sh*t Show
Meanwhile,
the real-world attempts to go on as if things are normal.
That was
the case this week when NRCS Louis visited the ranch. His mission was to review
past practices instituted to enhance our natural resource base. In this
business, that means grass and water.
He was
there in the beginning when we started throwing a bigger loop in dealing with
water issues. Now, with excess of 180,000’ of additional pipeline later, we can
support whole herd numbers in our pastures for the purpose of high intensity,
short duration grazing. Crowding large numbers of cattle into pastures for
designed periods of time followed by extended rest has done several things not
the least of which is the demand to replace or repair 90-year-old fencing
infrastructure. The intended outcome, stronger grass stands, is becoming
obvious.
Even in
seemingly perpetual drought, there is a growing, positive result.
At one
point, he called me and wanted to know the annual grazing use of the Burris
pasture. He was on the hillside east from the headquarters walking and
reviewing a 2006 brush treatment. His immediate interest was the recruitment of
seed load in side oats grama, a superior grass we have in limited quantities at
our elevation and southern location.
He was impressed.
As we
talked, he continued to walk and describe what he was seeing. The tuft grass
expansion on the southern exposures and the complexity of varieties on the
northern exposures were all of high interest to him. Many things have changed
since those earliest years.
During that
time, he has become a keener student of Chihuahuan desert grasslands just like
every resource manager should become. He and I have always sparred in a
friendly manner regarding the historical influence of ungulates on this land.
He is open about his belief that large ungulate impacts on our area were
minimal. My counter has always been his timeline assumptions are much too
short. The evolution of these grasses is not a 17th or 18th
century phenomenon, but rather much earlier prehistoric epochs.
That is
when fire, drought, wind, and periodic but heavy ungulate presence ran
roughshod across the landscape and contributed to the expansion of grasslands
as opposed to brushland development. Our modern presence is nothing more and nothing
less the proxy for that much earlier large herbivore impact on this land. The
corollary is the closer we mimic those influences the better the grass
responses are going to be.
With that
comes all the chaos of large herds of ungulates.
No, I have never
smelled herds of buffalo, but the sweet smell of cattle has to be somewhat
similar because they eat the same grass. They also leave tracks that catch
water, deposit urine and feces that aid in mineral and nutrient recycling, and
pound on brush growth if their numbers are adequate.
Admittedly,
but proudly, it’s a regular Sh*t Show especially if it done with enough
hooves to make the necessary impact. What is missing too often is the
perfection of this ancient art that takes more than years to understand.
Ranchers have always been the key to this grandest show on earth, and, in
today’s context, they are a most vital link … to a better environmental
tomorrow.
Stephen L. Wilmeth is a rancher from southern New
Mexico. “I’ve concluded I am going to support only what I can touch.”
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