The Nevada Standoff Has Nothing To Do With "Tyranny," "Sovereignty," "Freedom," or Cows.
Two affiliates of the Koch-funded Americans for Prosperity are helping conservative media promote the cause of a Nevada rancher who has made violent threats against the federal government.
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Legal scholars have largely concluded that these laws are unconstitutional. But with a fanatical, Federalist-society indoctrinated Supreme Court Majority bending over backwards to accommodate corporate interests in every conceivable manner, the Constitution has proved to be a flimsy protection against virulent greed. By milking and stoking the controversy, the Kochs seek to galvanize public opinion against the federal government, delegitimize the Bureau of Land Management that oversees public lands, and thereby impugn its stewardship of lands that Koch-run industries want to get their hands on. These include lands in Nevada, Utah and pretty much anywhere else they can dig, frack or mine. This isn't about some silly rancher's "grazing fees," to the Kochs and their business pals. It's about their desire to exploit, despoil and pollute lands that we, the public, own by virtue of our citizenship. That's not "freedom." It's greed.
In fact, it's almost tragic to see how the "militia groups" that pride themselves on their purported "independence" and "freedom" so willingly allow themselves to be duped by people whose only interest is to exploit the land for their own purposes. Whose self-serving greed wouldn't hesitate to gin up an armed confrontation in which people could conceivably die, simply for the purpose of lining their own pockets.
Did I sound like I feel sorry for the militia groups? I don't. If they were truly patriots I might feel sorry for them, but they aren't. Because true patriots would realize that the federal lands the Kochs, the oil, mining and energy industries are attempting to claim for themselves are:
Owned by every American – all 300-plus million of us. It is a peculiar property right we each have to this commons, as we acquire it simply by dint of citizenship, and what we own is spectacular. The marvel of the federal public-lands system is that it exists at all. During the 19th century and into the early 20th, much of the land was leased and sold off in a frenzy of corrupt dealings. Railroads, corporations, land speculators, mining interests, and livestock barons gorged on the public domain, helped along by the spectacularly pliable General Land Office, which from 1812 until its closure in 1946 privatized more than one billion acres, roughly half the landmass of the nation. The corruption was such that by 1885, The New York Times’ editorial page had denounced the “land pirates” whose “fraud and force” had excluded the citizen settler—the farmer, the homesteader, the cowboy—from “enormous areas of public domain” and “robb[ed] him of the heritage to which he was entitled.”
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/04/12/1291577/-The-Nevada-Standoff-Has-Nothing-To-Do-With-Tyranny-Sovereignty-Freedom-or-Cows
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"Feds Turn From Landlords To Warlords": Koch Groups Back Rancher Making Violent Threats Against Federal Gov't
Bundy's ongoing refusal to obey the law and court orders has become a cause célèbre for the conservative media, which has compared the situation to deadly standoffs like Waco and Ruby Ridge.
In recent comments to a conspiracy theorist's radio show, Bundy said, "I haven't called no militia or anything like that, but hey it looks like that's where we're at." He added, "We got a strong army here, we have to fight." Previously Bundy told the Las Vegas Sun that "he keeps firearms at his ranch" and promised to "do whatever it takes" to defend his cattle being seized, adding, "I abide by almost zero federal laws."
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Americans for Prosperity (AFP), the conservative non-profit group, was founded by and has been largely funded by billionaires Charles and David Koch. The Center for Media and Democracy reported that in its previous incarnation as Citizens for a Sound Economy, AFP received $12 million of its $18 million in funding from the Koch Family Foundation.
http://mediamatters.org/blog/2014/04/11/feds-turn-from-landlords-to-warlords-koch-group/198857
= new reply since forum marked as read
And people think this guy has principles?
No, he's got principals who pay him to sling bull for them.
Just like the media supporting Bundy.
a white welfare queen - what are you thinking 
Many also don't recognize that the BLM has been killing wild burros and wild horses to prevent overgrazing. Some habitat is marginal. Overgrazing will damage this land beyond recovery. I'm just saying. 
See that yellow in the Southwest? Bought by the Polk administration through the Treaty of Hidalgo. If you want to claim "stolen" then you'll have to blame Mexico, who claimed it from the Indians.
Here's the explanation for you. Seriously, this "stealing from the Indians" argument is getting stale.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mexican_Cession
Thanks for letting me know
poached. Hope you can keep the meat cool on the way out to a main highway.
I mean, this specific thing. Obviously, emotions are running high. This is rural Nevada, and these folks are hard core RW. The BLM has been around town for a while looking like they were ready for a range war. They were out in full force along the 15 yesterday up near Bunkerville, where Bundy had been grazing his cattle.
As in anything, there's two sides to this, and a few twists and turns. Government overreach in telling ranchers how many cattle they can raise, water allotments (which has more to do with Las Vegas' water grab, but that's another story), etc. vs. the fact that Bundy decided back in 1992 or 1993 to "fire" the BLM and hasn't paid any grazing fees since then. Add environmental groups threatening to sue the BLM if they don't protect the desert tortoise out on the open range, and you've got a nice little range war cooking.
The BLM backed down yesterday before it became a shooting confrontation, so the neanderthals are beating their chests today. This, of course, is not over.
There is a voice of reason in the wilderness...this letter was posted in our local newspaper. Bruce lays out just how easy it would have been to stay in compliance with BLM rules, which is what everyone seems to be missing. It didn't have to come to this. When you're done, check out the hair-tearing-out over Free Speech Zones. As long as they just rounded up "lefties" so Junior didn't have to see that people disagreed with him, fine. Now? Time to set their hair on fire.
http://mvprogress.com/2014/04/09/open-forum-there-are-other-ranchers-with-grazing-allotments-out-there/
greedy prints all over this..
