Ammon Bundy speech: Environmentalist threatening to take out 5 dams that service Cali. farms 5/26/18
Part 1: The Bundy Standoff
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Bundy Family & Nevada Lands History
Bundy’s Russian Neighbor says he refuses to live as he did in Russia. “I will be first to die, if necessary,” as he held high a U.S. Flag and walked toward Armed BLM Agents at Bunkerville, Nevada, April 2014
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TIME FOR PRESIDENT TRUMP TO ACT
–Kyle Lee Reber, Dixie State University
For thirty long years Nevadans, especially small-town Nevadans had to begrudgingly deal with the fact that Harry Reid was our Senator, and for many he remains one of the most controversial legislators in the history of the Battle Born State. Despite serving five terms in the Senate, rural Nevada never quite warmed up to him. While he was comfortable and cozy in Washington, and the Las Vegas Valley, his relationship with the smaller communities was cold, bitter and nonexistent. In 2010 “Dump Reid “signs could be found in the most remote parts of the state. I can remember passing one just outside of Hawthorne the fall of my senior year, hanging off a large haystack. Harry Reid born in the little town of Searchlight, ultimately became a threat to every little town like his hometown. He spent years lobbying and supporting conservation legislation damaging to Nevada economies. Ultimately Reid would retire disconnected having left a bitterness in residents of rural Clark County, Lincoln county and elsewhere across the state. In July of 2015 Reid’s persistence somewhat paid off when Obama designated 1100 square miles of Nye and Lincoln county as a monument, despite the outrage of local sheriff’s, county commissioners and town boards. When asked about the opposition the only words he had came out as arrogant and condescending when he said “What I say to people in Nye and Lincoln counties is, don’t worry about this, this is going to be great for you. This is going to be an attraction. It is going to be world famous. World famous!” Or in other words, regardless of the fact that you live there, the government knows what is best for you. Two years later the monument has brought no growth to speak of.
Around the same time from 2014 to 2015 Donald Trump started making the rounds on cable news, gearing up for the campaign he would announce in June of 2015. It is around this time Reid and Trump cross paths. In April of 2014, our government sent in stock contractors and a small army into the sleepy Virgin Valley to assert ownership and power over the land and its citizens, and confiscate Bundy cattle. What happened next is widely known. The government would attempt to establish a “first amendment zone”. Thousands of people drove, tens of thousands of miles to protest the B.L.M. and defend not just grazing and water rights but also basic Constitutional rights. Harry Reid would then go on to brand anyone there that day a domestic terrorist,
What is lesser known is that April 16th, 2014, Donald Trump went on air with Sean Hannity. The topic while they were air on that night, was Cliven Bundy. Mr. Hannity started off the interview, with the biggest understatement of that year, saying ” I don’t like heavy-handed government. 200 agents, snipers surrounding a ranch. Seems a little over the top to me.” Trump agreed saying “It’s over the top, its strong, I like him”. Trump then admitted that he wasn’t accustomed to grazing fees, but he knew there were certain regulations regarding them and then this ” If I were Cliven — and I like him, I like his spirit, his spunk and the people that are so loyal.” Sean agreed. Then he offered this advice “I do like him, I respect him. He ought to go and cut a good deal right now”.
The interview ended with both he and Sean agreeing Cliven should go cut a deal with the Bureau of Land management, and that the war games were a waste of resources. It’s interesting even in that interview they both remarked that the situation could have ended badly, even in gunshots, because that is a claim the so-called judge overseeing this case has denied. In her mind government is to pure to be at any fault. Cliven Bundy wasn’t going to deal any states or anyone’s rights. All in all, Trump said in that interview, that he liked Cliven three times, and that he respected him, and the people around him, and he admired their loyalty. A loyalty which would be passed on to candidate, Trump in the Nevada caucuses, the GOP Convention and the general election.
Not quite two years later, and four days after Ammon Bundy began his protest on behalf of Dwight and Steve Hammond, the then GOP frontrunner, ran an op-ed in the Reno Gazette. In which he stated he did not agree with the tactics, while at the same time blasting the Obama administration and the Bureau of Land Management, In the article he echoed almost verbatim what LaVoy Finicum and Ammon Bundy spoke at every press conference, Ammon repeatedly said he wanted “the loggers to get to logging, the miners to mine, the ranchers to ranch, hunters to hunt and the hikers to hike…” What Trump said was strikingly similar
“In the rural areas, those who for decades have had access to public lands for ranching, mining, logging and energy development are forced to deal with arbitrary and capricious rules that are influenced by special interests that profit from the D.C. rule-making and who fill the campaign coffers of Washington politicians”.
He echoed what county commissioners, town boards and ranchers had said for the last sixty years. That the Bureau of Land Management was “near-dictatorial”, “draconian”, “far-removed”. Controlling, and power hungry could also be added. Then as if to acknowledge the Bundy family and supporters, he acknowledged that the situation in and around Clark County was much worse, because the Bureau of Land Management is so reluctant to give up land. Because of that growth is being hindered, and communities must beg to expand and protect access to water rights, anytime a community does want to expand, it takes legislation in congress, which can be impossible to get at times. Trump stuck a chord in monument country in Nevada and in the rest of the western states.
Trump resonated so well, in rural Nevada he picked up fourteen of the sixteen counties. Only loosing Washoe county by less than a percent, and Clark County by less than three percent. On a precinct level Hillary didn’t win much outside of the Las Vegas. Lincoln County for example is ninety-eight percent federal property, and it went a staggering seventy-eight percent for Trump, and a meager thirteen percent for Hillary. The numbers look nearly the same in the counties of Churchill, Elko, Eureka, Esmerelda, Humboldt, Lander, Pershing, and White Pine, with Trump getting over seventy percent and Hillary between ten and twenty percent. He also severely outperformed her in Lyon, Mineral, Nye and Storey counties. Despite Trumps performance, the state went blue, which highlights the dangers of government when it becomes too large and democratic, urban population centers can silence rural towns. Trump remains popular in the most remote parts of the state, due to his position on the B.L.M. and liberal environmentalism in general.
The morning after the election a pleasantly surprised Paul Ryan made a victory speech, in which he promised relief was coming for the farmers in Wisconsin, and “the ranchers out west being harassed by the Interior Department, and the laid of timber workers. Trump has made some good on that promise. Two very good appointees were confirmed Ryan Zinke was appointed to head the Department of the Interior, and Scott Pruitt to the E.P.A. He rolled back the Waters of the United States rule, he put in place a hiring freeze. Then due, to the persistence and dedication of Utah’s state and federal legislatures, Trump signed the order initiating a review of Americas largest, most restrictive national monuments, designated in the last twenty-five years. The sitting head of the Department of the Interior, made his way to Utah and took the time to visit with sheriffs, county commissioners, and the governor. For many it is refreshing to see the government soliciting and acting on local input, versus urban based environmental groups. Trump has put America on a new path of land management, one where the local people are treated like citizens not subjects.
The approach of the Trump administration to land use and the environment and the people who live and depend on it is commendable. Much still needs to be done. The bureau of land managers, has become to militarized, centralized and authoritative. Once it had good intentions to prevent over-grazing, and it provided some ranching improvements like troughs and cattle guards. Over time though, it has been bought by special interest environmental groups, through donations of materials, labor and press and pressured by lawsuits. Some form of Utah Congressman Jason Chaffetz’s H.R. 622 needs to be implemented. The B.L.M, needs to cooperate with local officials. There also is no rule that B.L.M. enforces that warrants any loss of life, so why are they so militarized? Their role in law enforcement clearly needs to be re-evaluated, if not completely dismissed. Many of the environmental regulations nullified by Trump still hold many of Americans hostage in prison or in the courts. Too many Americans are in jail because of the climate war waged by the last administration, and they deserve to be released.
Co-Chairman of New Hampshire Veterans for Trump, was sentenced to seven years in prison for his role in the protest of the B.L.M. The ideals he and the Bundy’s espoused, are the ideals the president campaigned on. Why then do they remain in prison? Trump ran on a platform of local involvement, a limited government, increased access to public lands, and less regulation for the farmers and ranchers of Americas heartland, Ammon Bundy and Donald Trump espoused the same message, and the Bundy family and company are paying the price, at the hands of a liberal prejudiced Ninth Circuit. Trump of all people knows what that’s like. In Trumps op-ed to the Reno Gazette he promised he would “bring the executive branch back inside the Constitution and will work with Congress to put America first.” So, let’s end the nonsense, the U.S. Attorney’s office has spent many millions to convict Americas farmers and ranchers, as part of the last administration’s environmentalist war. President Trump is now in a position, where he can make a deal and give locals more say on public lands, and return industry back to these communities. He is also able to correct the prejudicial justice system crafted in the Obama era. It’s time for him to make good on his promises to Nevadans and every other rural American. It’s time to rescind these monuments it’s time to turn the Bundy’s and their supporters loose.
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Ammon Bundy live from solitary confinement after hours of physical abuse, 13 hours in a shower hand cuffed, and 2 dislocated shoulders.
Bundy Strong 