FOLLOW THE MONEY IN THE NEVADA SHOWDOWN

 

The Federal Government has run 52 private ranchers out of business in the county around the Bundy ranch. The only one left is now under siege by the Federal Bureau of Land Management. The overwhelming display of force is reminiscent of Federal police actions at Waco and Ruby Ridge. The Federal authorities sought and got a warrant for their actions based on provisions in the endangered species act. It is their position that one particular species of desert tortoise is at risk because of the Bundy’s cattle grazing on the lands where the tortoise lives. If we look deeper into the issue we find that the senior Senator from Nevada and current Senate majority leader was instrumental in getting the tortoise’s habitat map redrawn to include the now disputed area and exclude the land of his largest political donor, Harvey Whittemore. News reports of the BLM euthanizing hundreds of the same tortoise specie in recent months have now been confirmed. Remember when fish and wildlife personnel were caught on film destroying tens of thousands of salmon returning to hatcheries even as they were claiming statistics showing critically low return rates. The first nation’s members only escaped Federal prosecution for filming the criminal acts because of their heritage. It seems to me that killing tortoises so that low population numbers can be used to justify this outrage is like an echo of the fish killing that justified the revocation of the commercial fishing permits and dam destruction during the Clinton administration.

I always find it instructive to look into who might profit from an action when the action itself seems pointless. Clearly the tortoise cover story has little or nothing to do with the Federal agencies war on the ranchers in Nevada so let’s step back and ask who profits from the abuse of authority. One verified report found that the water rights of all of the closed down ranches had been auctioned off to the benefit of political special interests and Reid donors in the gaming community. A report out today finds that Harry Reid’s former top lieutenant, now the director of the BLM, has erased documents off the BLM web site which said that the agency wants Bundy’s cattle off the land the family has grazed for 140 years to make way for solar power stations. Getting back to the money we find that the legal representative of the Chinese firm planning the five billion dollar solar firm is Rory Reid, son of the Senator and also the former chair of the county commission that approved the sale of 9000 acres of land to the firm well below its appraised value. Isn’t it interesting that the BLM is perfectly willing to waive tortoise habitat rules in order to accommodate a solar farm when it is so determined to enforce them against the rancher?

The whole sordid affair has now gotten national media attention and the risk of an armed confrontation is high. The BLM came in with overwhelming force and now crowds of citizen supporters have gathered to protest the tyranny. The news helicopters started to show up like circling vultures making film on the nightly news broadcasts inevitable so the Federal Government in the form of the FAA created a “no fly zone”. The Bundy ranch conflict may be the spark that ignites the confrontation so long sought by the progressives between government agents and the armed public. I hope cooler heads prevail but we need to remember that the people in charge are the same ones that sold guns to the Mexican drug cartels and explosives to Timothy McVey in ill-conceived sting operations. Tyranny is waxing in this country with the full support of the Attorney General and the liberal press. I fear that a lot of patriotic blood may be spilled before the rule of law is restored.