History is His Story

I knew a year ago in February 2016 that the world, more specifically the United States, has passed through some unseen portal into a completely Biz-ar-aye version of what we knew to be logical, ethical and justifiable. Those events played out at the wildlife refuge at Malheur, Oregon. Several dozen heavily armed white men and women took over a Federal wildlife refuge and buildings to protest the ownership of real estate by the Federal government. After 41 days of essentially doing nothing, the occupation was terminated with a traffic stop along a snowy rural highway wherein one many demanded to be killed to become a martyr. Lavoy Finicum was given that status as he orchestrated his death at the hands of a tyrannical government.

After all the hoopla was over and the Federal trials were conducted, the outcome was a universal not guilty verdict for all involved who pled not-guilty. The four main leaders were likewise found not guilty even though they continued to face other criminal charges in Nevada for other similar crimes.

All the while meetings between conspirators and state-level elected officials took place where in the position of the occupiers was both condoned and praised as heroic against the nasty federal government. The US Congress even has proposed legislation that would facilitate the transfer of ownership and control to the states by Law rather than lawlessness. Every notion of propriety was destroyed in that altercation and the positions GOP Legislators took in response.

So even as black and other minorities were being killed daily by police for "crimes" far less serious than armed insurrection and sedition, the white men all got to leave, save the one who chose to "fall on his sword" for the cause. This is when the upside down nature of the world became highly evident. It heralded the next year of TTPT events and outcomes. (Totally Twisted Political Twatwafflery).

The lead Republican presidential candidate could say and do the most outlandish thing and exhibit all the negative behaviors that made it impossible for a lesser Republican to be given the time of day due to not being conservative enough, family oriented enough, Christian enough, spousally fidel enough, and patriotic to the GOP cause enough. Little did anyone realize, the GOP itself was in the process of deprecating all of those attribute both to favor their loutish selection and their own skins. All too often a politician would berate an opponent only to be caught being exactly the same. The Undiscovered Lie used to be a career killer. But today they are "political capital assets" needed in order to prosper.

So we jump ahead. Donald Trump has bested Hillary Clinton by every means possible that includes, Gerrymandering voting districts, voter suppression in the form of challenging all persons without a photo ID, challenging voters who names are similar in other districts, alleging widespread fraud, alleged tampering with voting machine tabulations, organized misinformation/disinformation (aka Fake News) and all the other usual suspect shenanigans of the electoral process. Let's not get bogged down in those allegations and accusation.

So here we are with a GOP controlled House of Representatives, a GOP Controlled Senate, and a GOP controlled Presidency and Vice Presidency. This Trifecta of dominance had been avoided by the electorate in most elections for many decades. Rightfully so was the answer too. There always was the constitutionally prescribed "Checks and Balances" among the Three equal Branches of government. The President has the responsibility to appoint the Judiciary Branch people and the Senate has the responsibility to confirm or reject the appointee. But when the Legislature and the Executive Branches are similarly aligned they have the power to determine the political allegiances of the Judiciary.

Members of the Trump Team have (allegedly) conspired with Russian agents, their President, spies and cyber attackers  who would assist Donald in becoming President in a Manchurian Way to assist them with global fiscal and energy development policy. Now with the SPECTRE of being labeled treasonous, Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov meets with US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on Thursday in Bonn. Tillerson states that the US and Russian might work together as allies of "certain" things. Wow! What a deflection from the scandal of Flynn talking with Russians before, during and after the November 2016 Presidential election where the allegations are Russian intelligence operatives guided the Us election toward Donald Trump and other alleged American government officials, FBI Director James Comey, sandbagged Hillary Clinton to favor Trump in the 2016 election.

If the USA and Russian are "friendly" and "allies" how can Flynn's actions be counted as treason? Even as we try to characterize political actions as unpatriotic, treasonous, as sedition or merely unwise, the rules are being changed right before our eyes. There is some form of "mission-creep" going on that rights the wrongs after the fact. It is like one can actually alter the Past. 

Why the Malheur Occupation is Not Being Shutdown

Above all the hoopla that Ammon and Ryan Bundy are stirring up at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Warner County, Oregon under the flag of defending the US Constitution is their sole desire to graze cattle on land that is not theirs and not have to pay for it.

The fact that the land in question is federally owned and managed sticks in their craw because they and their minions believe that the federal government has no authority over them or anything they want to do. It galls them that the bureaucrats in Washington, DC can tell them where, when and how they do their business. Ranchers and cattlemen like the Bundy family, including their father, Cliven, have historically taken what they want and used force and coercion to hold on to it. To them having to deal with the federal government makes their ability to influence outcomes much more difficult. They believe, and probably rightfully so, that state or county level management would be less stringent and thereby less expensive.

Cattle grazing on public land is not the only use the protest is about. Mining, drilling and Off-road Vehicle users each have their constituents who fume at the denial of their intended use by the "overreaching federal government.

This assertion that the government over reaches is one that is held by most if not all Republican legislators, Governors and Mayors. While someone needs to say NO to the unbridled exploitation of the land, air and water, the private interests have grown up believing it is their right to take what is there as God-given resources for them to have. Ammon Bundy as he continued to occupy the MHWR in January 2016 said his Mormon God told him to do it.

Republicans have supported the reallocation of land control to the states for many decades. President Ronald Reagan called himself a supporter of the "Sagebrush Rebellion" back in the 1970s and 80s. There is nothing in the Bundy Agenda that is at odds with the Republican congress of the United States.

The problem of relinquishing federal control of the western lands it owns is far greater than mere grazing of cattle. The cattle will not stop eating before the plat food is severely diminished. That is why the BLM requires permits. The BLM can monitor the health of the land and the plant growth stopping over-grazing that ALWAYS occurs when there are competing ranchers.

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How the Buying and Selling of everything lessens it real value. When the tuna made people sick, the seller said, "I thought you understood that that tuna was for buying and selling, NOT eating."

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The problem with state control is that mining concerns and drilling concerns are far more likely to influence the state level bureaucrats to not interfere. Sale to private owners leaves open the perpetual control of the land to any use the owner chooses without concern for the consequences. That issue is where the label of Tuna! arises. Buy and sell the land, do what makes a profit, deplete the resources and move on to another location without concern for the long-term damage being done. With every exploitative interest reaching for the most revenue from the land, someone has to speak for the land itself. That is the job of the federal government.

The land is more than just sagebrush and minerals. It is beauty that tourists want to visit. It is archaeological sites. It is cultural sites of the indigenous people who lived here first. There are species other than humans who depend on the land too. The parcels of land that ware being contested do not exist in isolation. Water flows from and through these lands becomes the water of people downstream. They deserve protections too. Cows defecating in streams, pollute that water for downstream users.

When it comes to long term sustainability of land and its uses, private and weak governance leads to its depletion and degradation. It is for the corporate interests that the ranchers occupying Malheur are really fighting. They are fighting the Republican battle against the federal government. They are using the specious claim that they are now defending the US Constitution by cherry-picking sections to use as their claim of legitimacy.  There can be no wonder why the FBI has not move immediately to squash this sedition. Much of the claims are in accordance with the Legislative opinions of the present Congress.