The developing confrontation between a Nevada rancher and Government officialdom did not really capture my attention until by chance on Monday morning I heard the rancher being interviewed on the Glenn Beck radio show. Before that I had glanced at blogs on Free Republic over the weekend and read that armed militia-men were descending on a ranch in the State to prevent the rancher being arrested and his cattle impounded. At first I thought it was simply about a rancher owing $1m in outstanding grazing fees and not being able to pay. I now know that the issue at stake is one profoundly important to all conservatives and lovers of freedom. Some background information is necessary for the benefit of British visitors to this website, but other Europeans, and Americans in Eastern States, may also better understand the issue that has mobilized American Constitutionalists and temporarily repulsed a predatory Revolutionary Government.
Since on this website we believe that anecdotes and eye-witness accounts are now more reliable, honest and truthful than anything the Mainstream Media (MSM) spews, here is my take on Nevada. I have driven and hiked across Nevada a few times and, apart from Las Vegas and Reno, it is one of my favorite States, for it is wild empty country with lonely mountain ranges dotted across its desert wastes. The climate is harsh, being very cold in winter and very hot and dry in summer. In many places in the high desert the water is salty and only a few things grow. It survives as a part of the old Wild West of cowboys and cattle herds which roam the wide open spaces. It has little in common with those places, like my native Devon (UK), where cattle graze in lush meadows and sleep in barns in winter. Ranching in Nevada has to be a tough and low-paying life and the poor grazing land means that it takes many acres to support one animal. In the areas in close proximity to the mountain ranges, where there are canyons with some water, trees and vegetation, there is a constant threat to cattle from the terrain, the climate and mountain lions. Those who stopped here and put down roots and raised herds had to be among the toughest and most independent of America’s early settlers. Nevertheless many did and their children and grandchildren are still there ranching – or at least were until recent times. They exercised grazing rights for their cattle but did not own the land. The land itself presumably de facto belonged to the State of Nevada, and similar arrangements long existed in other Western desert states like Utah, Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, New Mexico and perhaps Texas.
In more recent times the Federal Government seems to have taken control of all this wild country and in order to ‘manage’ it has created Government Departments. One such Department is the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) which is the Department now facing off with a lone rancher in Clark County. It appears that the BLM is not answerable to the State of Nevada but to Washington and the White House. From what I learned on the Glenn Beck program, Clark County, until relatively recent times, had many ranchers but now only Mr. Cliven Bundy and his family remain. The Bundy family has been ranching there for well over 100 years and exercising their grazing rights, until, a few years ago, the BLM decided they should pay rent to the Federal Government as their landlord. Mr. Bundy refused to recognize the Government’s ownership and refused to pay rent. After several years of non-payment, the BLM alleges that he owes over $1m in unpaid rent. The conflict that has now erupted is a result of the BLM moving to evict him. Caught up in, and muddying the conflict, is an issue of the Government protecting an endangered species of tortoise that is allegedly harmed by the presence of grazing cattle.
A BLM preliminary step in the eviction process has been to begin rounding up Mr. Bundy’s cattle and confiscating them. Helicopters have been employed to drive the cattle off the range and this has resulted in the deaths from heat and exhaustion of some cattle and calves. At the same time, because Mr. Bundy has refused to budge, his ranch has been surrounded by heavily armed BLM men with dogs, presumably to prevent him from interfering with the cattle round-up and in preparation for the invasion of his ranch and the arrest or removal of him and his family. Over the Internet Mr. Bundy’s plight has been brought to the attention of people in neighboring Western States, no doubt some of them ranchers similar to Mr. Bundy who are very aware of the Federal Government’s encroaching power and antipathy to (White) ranchers. It is particularly in these desert/rural States that longtime families still hold dear the concepts of States’ Rights, Federal power severely limited by the US Constitution, great personal independence and gun rights. It is here that militias have evolved and so, in the past week, increasing numbers of men and women have been descending on the Bundy ranch to prevent the BLM evicting the Bundy family and confiscating the family’s cattle.
It has been widely reported on the Internet that the BLM has marshaled some 200 heavily armed men with back-up equipment, in short a military-style force. Those old enough to remember the names Ruby Ridge and Waco will be aware that these situations can result in very determined Government action and great loss of life, so this Clark County face-off is for real.
The first question that exercises my simple mind is where did this military-style BLM force come from? In so far as I ever considered this Government Department I pictured office bureaucrats, a few biologists, and surveyors driving around in four-wheel drive pickups. So are these armed BLM men specially recruited for this incident or does the Department have a standing army?
Other questions for those of a less simple mind, include: what happened to the other ranchers of Clark County – have they been purposefully driven out by the BLM with rent demands that have made this type of ranching unprofitable? Is this happening all over Nevada and other similar States? Is the shadowy and un-Constitutional Department of the Interior involved and providing the troops and firepower? Is this move against Western ranchers ratcheting up because the White House, the ruling Media Class and its Leftist allies are seeking to eliminate a class of Americans who are conservative, mostly Christian, armed and naturally counter-revolutionary? Is this part of a bigger pattern, for here in California the Leftist regime and the Federal bureaucracies have made the current drought and water shortage an excuse to bankrupt farmers and ranchers by cutting off water supplies? As water spouts out all over Silicon Valley, keeping the landscaping around the High-tec HQ’s verdant, supplying car cleaning and dog-grooming businesses and topping up swimming pools, the farmers of the Central Valley can watch their fruit trees die. Food provision is bottom of the list of Governor Jerry Brown’s priorities and I can only surmise that this is at least the punishment of conservative/Republican voters and perhaps a Leftist instinct to remove a class of conservative agrarian citizens who are natural enemies of those advancing totalitarianism.
Cliven Bundy, who was interviewed by Beck on Monday morning’s radio program, was not an inarticulate bumpkin. Indeed, despite Beck’s interfering interview style, Bundy proved to be a man with a deep knowledge of America’s frontier history, a profound understanding of the Constitution and its authors’ intent, a clear grasp of the real issues involved in his confrontation with Government, a quiet courage, a cool head and a Christian motivation. All of these qualities are, of course, anathema to Obama, Holder, America’s Leftists and the perverted and rich Ruling Media Class that governs from behind the scenes.
Bundy is refusing to pay rent for he claims that he and the ranchers like him have always had grazing rights to this land, that the land belongs – as per the Constitution – to the State of Nevada, that the Federal Government has no right to interfere or claim ownership, that the BLM is an illegal body, that Sheriffs (who are elected by the citizens) are the only legitimate law officers with jurisdiction and that they should be resisting the armed BLM invasion. It sounded like he had a good case and was a David resisting a Goliath, driven by much more than mere self-interest. He was not a man looking for violence but realized that this Government had to be resisted and that the framers of the Constitution had foreseen that armed resistance to a power-hungry government might one day be necessary. Obviously some thousands of fellow-countrymen and American Constitutionalists agreed with him and had poured down to stand with him. Beck was leery of associating himself with the talk of violent resistance – maybe out of Christian pacifism, being aware of things about Bundy and his supporters that have not been revealed, or fear that he will lose his radio program if he moves from an intellectual opposition to the Revolutionary forces that now hold power, to a practical opposition.
There are many blogs on Free Republic that allege that Democrat Senator Harry Reid of Nevada (and Senate Leader) has a pecuniary interest in the eviction of Mr. Bundy. Whether this is true or not he has certainly had much to say and is demanding that Bundy be removed. He argues that laws are laws and must always be obeyed. This is more than arch coming from the leader of a Party that is daily, and all across the land, brazenly ignoring laws that affect homosexuality, illegal immigration and much, much else. It is also alleged on FR that the Nevada turtle is definitely not an endangered species.
Rancher Bundy and his armed supporters may not realize it but they are the first counter-revolutionary soldiers offering resistance in a Class-created civil war that has until now been both subterranean and, because unopposed, not a shooting war. Last weekend the Federal forces withdrew from the Bundy ranch and at least some of his cattle were returned. The chances of a shooting war have been avoided for the moment, though Harry Reid is demanding that the Government not surrender. The White House and its inner circle may well have calculated that in the run-up to elections another Waco might severely damage the Democrat Party image. Certainly, Obama with merely a phone or a pen has control over the BLM agenda and the smart thing might be to sit out this situation. The Government has inexhaustible power and can wait, in the meantime hindering Mr. Bundy’s ranching activities; keeping him isolated and under pressure; keeping the alleged debt hanging over his head; having the MSM dig up his past and constantly misrepresenting the issues and wearing down his armed supporters. Only the government can afford a standing army! Once the militiamen have departed the BLM forces can pounce at any time, assured that if there are no deaths, the MSM can bury any news. That is the pessimistic prediction!
On the other hand we can celebrate the BLM (and the Ruling Class) backing down – no matter how temporarily – in the face of armed opposition by the people. This may energize and embolden more counter-revolutionaries in the mountain and prairie States. Some conservative Republican politicians may be encouraged to publicly stand with Mr. Bundy. Talk Radio, Fox News and the Internet may keep the issue alive.
On this website we have two further comments to make. The first is that in the USA, thanks to its early history and founders, there are still many citizens who hold that government is the servant and not the master. This view has been eliminated in the UK and most of Europe – if it ever existed. The second is that citizens who hold to such a view can only do so if armed.
In connection with that last sentence it was widely reported today that Michael Bloomberg, the billionaire former mayor of New York and a RINO, is launching and funding a $50m campaign to counter the NRA. Last year, Bloomberg organized Leftist mayors across America to promote gun control. Bloomberg, like his comrades, sees gun control as merely a step on the road to an unarmed citizenry. Not incidentally, Bloomberg has also been an activist and funder of SSM, also merely a step on the road to homosexual oppression of the citizenry. Bloomberg, like George Soros, is hell-bent on working with the Leftists and perverts of Hollywood and other Media constituencies to advance the moral collapse of America, flood the country with Third World people (Balkenization) and disarm the natives.
Those who visit the website ‘Occidental Observer’ (can be accessed through our Links) will be aware that its writers allege that Jews have an agenda all around the world to destroy Christianity and the White European peoples of the West. The site is well-written and documented and a ‘must’ read for those who value free speech and want to peer beneath the surface of contemporary politics. Bloomberg and Soros are both Jews, as are many very wealthy Media people who fund the Left. It is beyond argument that Jews overwhelmingly support Leftist causes. On this website however, though we advocate reading the Occidental Observer, we see the main struggle in today’s politics as between the Left and the Right, the Media Class and the people, the moral and the amoral, Conservatism and Progressivism and – on the world stage – between Christian civilization and Islamic Imperialism. We believe that all who value free speech, traditional morality, free markets, conservation of the Earth, the preservation of national boundaries and Constitutional government – irrespective of skin color and race- must make common cause and seek agreements rather than differences.
Last week, the taxpayer-funded, pervert-infested, Leftist BBC (UK), reporting on a body washed up on a Cornish beach, wrote: “a part of Perranporth Beach known as a gay cruising area.” Here, just briefly, we get to view the homosexual underworld, their real world, not the sanitized wedding cake set-up used by the MSM to promote SSM. This is the world of sex-driven sado/masochists addicted to anonymous couplings. Legitimacy and Media-conferred respectability cannot alter the behavior. Note the slick, cool word ‘cruising’ – another example of the theft of our language along with ‘gay’.
On this website we have always argued that the homosexual movement has no interest in marriage other than as a step towards the suppression of free speech and the forced acceptance of sodomy as normal and more. We recommend a visit to the National Association of Marriage (NOM) website (listed on our ‘Links’) to read the public announcement of NY City Councilman Daniel Dromm, a homosexual activist. His view is that anyone not approving the ‘gay life style’ is not welcome in New York. “We don’t need bigoted people even keeping opinions to themselves.” So there you have it! Keeping quiet is not enough, you have to be approving. “They [disapprovers of homosexuality] are not welcome here unless they can embrace all of New York’s diverse community, including the LGBT community.” Let’s leave aside that the word ‘diverse’ is intended to conveniently link sodomites with races, what right has he to speak for New Yorkers or to exclude any Americans from a city that is part of their land? Soon we will be obliged to embrace leather fetishists, man/boy relationships and man/dog relationships or not be welcome anywhere.
Weather – Here in middle California it is cool at night and gently warm by day. We still need more rain! NBC News on April 16 heading is “Mid April Freeze Hits Millions Across US. A mass of cold air that saw temperatures in the Plains plummet below freezing Tuesday has now shifted east and will hang over a large area of the inland US. Freeze warnings from New York to Arkansas as well as Illinois and Louisiana.” Hardly sounds like global warming! In the UK it is pleasantly sunny and dry, at least for a few days!
Music Choice – It was said that Erroll Garner could not read a note of music and was self-taught. For a time, in his early middle years he drove a taxi for a living. Yet he was a master of the piano as well as a great artist of improvisation and embellishment. His rhythm was infectious and he had one of those gifts that all the greatest jazz musicians have – and Miles Davis lacked – humor. In September 1955 Garner was featured at the Carmel jazz festival and he played a composition that he had written for the occasion. It is called ‘Mambo Carmel’. A touch of Latin and a catchy and happy melody with a surprisingly tricky bridge, adds up to a great listen!