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Related: About this forumSagebrush Rebellion Returns
The Sagebrush Rebellion is alive and well among yahoo western ranchers who rely on the federal government to survive but resent its presence when it does anything but facilitate private interests.
Of course, the problem here is quite simple. This guy wont pay his grazing fees. He owes $1 million but refused to recognize the Bureau of Land Management as a legitimate government agency. Creating a version of western history Jim DeMint would be proud to own if he cared about the West, Bundy claims his familys claims existed before the BLM or the Endangered Species Act (part of the issue here is the desert tortoise). Well, sure, but its not like the land wasnt still owned by the federal government before the BLMs creation! And its not like environmental legislation only gets applied to land not used by ranchers before 1970.
The Sagebrush Rebellion, for those of you not familiar with western land management history, was an astroturf roots movement of rich western ranchers, mine owners, and timber operators in the late 1970s and early 1980s against a federal government enforcing the environmental legislation passed by Congress. Western resource interests have never much cared for democracy and so revolted by engaging in some stupid actions like blocking Forest Service roads and the like. They had a champion in the Reagan Administration, especially the era of James Watt as Secretary of the Interior. Getting Carter out of office kind of ended the organized movement, but occasionally this sentiment pops up like it has this weekend. In the overheated right-wing rhetoric of today, what with the Muslim black president and all, morons have come out to support the rancher, leading to real fear among the government officials enforcing the law.
http://www.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com/2014/04/sagebrush-rebellion
Fearing for their safety as armed protesters gathered in the Nevada back country, federal officials on Saturday suddenly ended a controversial effort to seize hundreds of cattle that a rancher has kept illegally on public land.
The cattle ranchs owner, Cliven Bundy, and hundreds of armed supporters had threatened to forcefully keep Bureau of Land Management employees from rounding up the approximately 900 cattle. Nearly 400 of the cattle had been seized during the past week. They were being held nearby and could be sent to Utah, authorities said.
In a meeting Saturday, Bundy urged Clark County Sheriff Doug Gillespie to seize the federal officials weapons and bring them back to the rancher. The demand coincided with the sheriff, whos sought to avoid bloodshed, reading a news release from the BLM to a jubilant crowd gathered near Bundys ranch.
http://www.latimes.com/nation/nationnow/la-na-nn-nevada-rancher-blm-20140412,0,1159016.story
Of course, the problem here is quite simple. This guy wont pay his grazing fees. He owes $1 million but refused to recognize the Bureau of Land Management as a legitimate government agency. Creating a version of western history Jim DeMint would be proud to own if he cared about the West, Bundy claims his familys claims existed before the BLM or the Endangered Species Act (part of the issue here is the desert tortoise). Well, sure, but its not like the land wasnt still owned by the federal government before the BLMs creation! And its not like environmental legislation only gets applied to land not used by ranchers before 1970.
The Sagebrush Rebellion, for those of you not familiar with western land management history, was an astroturf roots movement of rich western ranchers, mine owners, and timber operators in the late 1970s and early 1980s against a federal government enforcing the environmental legislation passed by Congress. Western resource interests have never much cared for democracy and so revolted by engaging in some stupid actions like blocking Forest Service roads and the like. They had a champion in the Reagan Administration, especially the era of James Watt as Secretary of the Interior. Getting Carter out of office kind of ended the organized movement, but occasionally this sentiment pops up like it has this weekend. In the overheated right-wing rhetoric of today, what with the Muslim black president and all, morons have come out to support the rancher, leading to real fear among the government officials enforcing the law.
http://www.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com/2014/04/sagebrush-rebellion
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Sagebrush Rebellion Returns (Original Post)
phantom power
Apr 2014
OP
villager
(26,001 posts)1. I had death threats on my answering machine back in that era.
Was doing environmental organizing back then. Could see the rise of the far, violent right quite clearly in enviro circles, though most big city liberal apparatchiks dismissed it all, of course (just as issues that were too "far out" -- like, well, climate change, were routinely dismissed).
But those of us that knew people getting blown up in their cars, or who were receiving these threats via phone or mail, knew this particular toxic genie -- abetted by a rightwing Federal government, and sympathetic "police" all over the West (where most of these issues played out) -- was not going back into its bottle...
phantom power
(25,966 posts)2. nothing shouts "democracy" like death threats and terrorism
villager
(26,001 posts)3. And those making the threats like to shout "freedom" the loudest
Unsurprisingly.