So who is this Bundy family?
The ancestors were LDS pioneer ranchers and farmers who found a place to homestead on the Virgin River in Clark County Nevada, downstream of the communities of Bunkerville and Mesquite, just a few miles from Interstate 15 as it makes it's way from Las Vegas, Nevada to St. George, Utah through the far northwest corner of Arizona.
After they established a place to live, they obtained or purchased patented and deeded Nevada water rights in a large area of desert lands, commonly known as Gold Butte specifically to provide water not only for their livestock but also for wildlife. But then in 1934, generations after the ranch was established, the federal government enacted the Taylor Grazing Act, which was intended to stop over-grazing on public lands. Depending on the terrain involved, large tracts of the land in the western United States were moved under the supervision of agencies such as the Division of Forestry (USFS), the Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) or the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), even though the Constitution clearly prohibits the federal government from owning lands inside a state except in very limited circumstances. But over the years, many of these agencies without Congressional oversight of any kind, began to act like they owned the lands.
The Taylor Act became part of the Nevada State Statutes, and the mechanics of the law were very clear. A portion of the fees paid by a rancher were eventually to be returned via the state and the county to provide for improving the range conditions, developing water resources and maintaining limited and primitive access to the area for the citizens.
But like many federal programs, the operation changed. Did the grazing fees, like social security, get moved from specific accounts to the general account and spent by Congress? We do not know, but what we do know is that there was an annual contract between the rancher and the government. At one point, Cliven Bundy objected to the new terms of the agreement, but unlike the legal requirements of most normal contracts where both parties negotiate the agreement, the government said take it or leave it. So Bundy tried to pay his $31,000 in fees directly to the County and they refused to accept them.
One of the bones of contention in Gold Butte was a threatened reptile, the desert tortoise.. And the Bureau of Land Management, without any knowledge of the scientific relationship between tortoises and cattle, decided the cattle had to be removed to protect the tortoises. Cattle removed to where? The government made no offer of another suitable range for the Bundy herd.
There is a very interesting paper written by Nevada biologist Vernon Bostick, entitled. "The Desert Tortoise in Relation to Cattle Grazing" which clearly points out that in a hot and arid desert environment, the tortoises (who have no teeth) take advantage of the partially digested roughage that the cattle ate, to provide them with both food and moisture, and therefor, the more cattle or other wildlife that leaves droppings in an area, the more tortoises the area can support.
And now we come to another familiar name. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. Both Harry and his son Rory worked for many years with various developers of solar collection fields in Nevada, including a Chinese company by the name of ENN. They had tried to get the funding for a large field near Laughlin, Nevada, which eventually failed, and then in the quest for another suitable location there was apparently a consideration of a federal "land swap" between the BLM and another owner, and the Gold Butte area was considered as a possible area for the swap. (see: Senator Reid Behind BLM Land Grab of Bundy Ranch) But how do they get rid of the Bundy Ranch and their cattle? First you find some environmental activists who will take up the cause. And that became the 501c3 Non-profit corporation known as the Center for Biological Diversity (CBD) formed in 2012, whose goal is "Saving Life on Earth". They had lots of money that was a tax deductible donation to them from environmentalists, and when the BLM tried to stall, the CBD threatened to sue them. And their lawsuits were well known, with other environmental groups referring to them as a "litigation mill", partly because their well paid employees were not selected for their scientific knowledge, but for their law degrees.
Now enter the US Fish and Wildlife Service. They had been mandated to operate a desert tortoise containment area outside Las Vegas for many years, because land developers were required to locate and remove the tortoises from the land where they were doing construction. In the early years of this facility many of the tortoises had been unnecessarily euthanized when it was thought that they had a respiratory disease, but with a limited budget, the facility was now being closed and the tortoises released into the wild without regard to their chances of survival, at the same time that CBD was fighting to remove the Bundy cattle and their ready food supply for the same threatened species in another part of the same county. That year, the CBD's tax return showed a net income of over $17 Million dollars, yet not one dime was offered to help save the tortoises being released because USFWS could not afford to keep them fed And yes, that was a $17 million tax free income over expenses operating profit. Money that had come to CBD as a tax deduction for someone else.
So much for concern about desert tortoises. And back to the "Bundy Ranch Standoff" of 2014.
At the prodding of CBD, on March 15, 2014 the BLM sent a letter to Cliven Bundy telling him they are going to remove his trespass cattle, and they decided to hire cowboys to start rounding them up, apparently with the intention of selling them at auction. In the old days, this was called rustling. And the man in charge of this round-up was BLM Agent on Charge of the region that encompasses both Utah and Nevada, Daniel P Love. He had been promoted as the Director of BLM , Neil Kornze, who had just been appointed a few days previously to head the BLM after serving for years as the Senior Aide to Senator Harry Reid. Thr department of Interior press release on the kornze appointment said "Kornze now oversees the nation’s largest natural
resources organization, with responsibility for more than ten percent of the
land in the United States and one-third of the country’s minerals. The Bureau
of Land Management has nearly 10,000 employees and an annual budget of $1.3
billion." He had no relative experience.
As for Agent in Charge, Dan Love, he had been promoted to that position after designing and conducting an antiquities sting operation known as Operation Cerberus, in Utah in 2009 after admitting he knew nothing about antiquities or Native American artifacts. By the time this project was concluded, three men had committed suicide and BLM had spent hundreds of thousands of dollars and virtually no one was convicted of anything illegal.
On April 10, 2014, near the Bundy Ranch in Nevada, journalist Pete Santilli attempted to have a rational
conversation with Daniel Love for about 6 minutes, documented in a U-tube audio
only recording as Santilli was obviously trying to reason, and Love was
threatening to arrest him if he or anyone else tried to impede, or interfere
with the two lawful Court Orders he was going to enforce.
Love insisted that the government owns the land they
manage, and that the Constitution and the law were on his side. Love finally
announced emphatically, “I’m done here. But if you impede or interfere you will
be arrested” The secret audio recording
of the Santilli/Love conversation can be heard at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9p0YemhFnw8
On April 12, 2014, on orders of Clark County Sheriff Doug Gillespie, the BLM took their backhoe (that had been used to dig graves for the cattle that had been killed) and their dump truck (that had the remains of water devices that had been destroyed) and dozens of vehicles and armed agents who had been menacing the men, women and children who had come from across America to peacefully protest the overstep of the BLM, who had actually cordoned off a remote area in which Freedom of Speech was allowed.
On December 28, 2016, President Barack Obama used an inappropriate law from 1905 to create both the Gold Butte National Monument in Nevada and the Bears Ears National Monument in Utah. This effectively destroys the Bundy Ranch because grazing on the land they have cared for for over 100 years is now illegal. And it was a vindictive act designed to punish the people who had done nothing wrong in the Operation Cerberus sting, by removing the lands that they have enjoyed for generations in another very remote area.
And other than the fact that both monuments were created simultaneously, and their operation in remote areas will ultimately cost the taxpayers a great deal of money to maintain and operate for very few people who will drive hundreds of miles out of their way to see what is there,, what else do these two areas have in common? Uranium, gold, and a great deal of untapped natural wealth that will be out of reach of development for a lifetime.
And what of Daniel P. Love, former security guard, air martial, and agent in charge? The man with the gun. In 2015 after numerous complaints, Mr. Love was moved to a desk job. Not fired, just transferred to a job that did not require him to be armed. Earlier that year, he had gone to the Burning Man event in far northwest Nevada. On January 10, 2017 The Office of the US inspector General filed The Investigative Report of Ethical Violations and Misconduct by Bureau of Land Management Officials. Why wasn't he fired?
As for Cliven Bundy, his sons, journalist Pete Santilli and a number of the people who were at the Bundy Ranch in 2014, they are still in custody awaiting speedy trials in May of 2017.
And what of former Senate Majority Leader, Harry Reid? He knew the writing was on the wall after his many shady deals, and he retired on a fat pension. Neil Kornze is still in charge of the Bureau of Land Management even though he was a political appointment and had no experience that qualified him to be hired over employees who had been with teh agency for years.
And those 501c3 Non profit organizations, like the Center for Biological Diversity involved in the Gold Butte Monument, and the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance and the Utah Dineah Bakeyah corporation in Utah. Well they are still receiving tax write-off donations from big foundations, and grants, and they are allowed to spend the money any way they want to further their political agendas. If Tea party groups were denied non-profit tax status by Lois Learner and crew, how then did all of the environmentalists with a political agenda manage to become tax exempt organizations?
No comments:
Post a Comment