NEVADA STANDOFF PITS ALEC, AFP, DEADBEAT RANCHER and ARMED THUGS vs. AMERICAN PEOPLE. The rightie fringe spin on the Nevada standoff is that BLM and the federal government are trampling a ranchers liberty and property rights and unconstitutionally usurping the authority of the Sovereign State of Nevada. That contention is bullshit. Heres why. The Nevada Legislature, which apparently never heard of the Civil War, passed a law purporting to transfer to the state, lands belonging to you and me. Thats what BLM lands are. The American people have owned around 42% of what became Nevada, since it was added as a state along with others carved out of what the U.S. stole via genocide from the stewardship of the natives, extracted from Mexico by imperialist aggression, or from what was unconstitutionally purchased from Napoleon on behalf of the US by President Jefferson. The self-styled patriots and militia threatening federal officials with guns, and their zealous supporters, contend federal ownership of the lands to be unauthorized by the Constitution. The multi-billionaire far-right financier Koch Brothers, via their front ALEC (American Legislative Exchange Council), pushed the nullification-like land transfer statutes in Nevada and other former Sagebrush Rebellion states having large amounts of federal land within their borders. The Kochs, via their other front Americans for Prosperity (AFP), intend that these massive swaths of lands be sold to private mining and energy interests, swelling state coffers so that the states might afford to forgo federal aid entirely and thereby not be subject to many federal regulations. In the meantime, two things happened to set up the current confrontation. First, the rancher stopped paying federal grazing fees for use of the leased federal land his cattle used, on the advice of the patriot/militia types. BLM ultimately got a court order for seizure of over 400 head of cattle the rancher continued to have graze on US lands while he refused to pay grazing fees. Cattle grazing can be very destructive to land so its essential to keep herds moving around large areas. Back when the Plains Indians thrived, buffalo migrated across immense parts of the continent. The second trigger for the standoff occurred when BLM determined that a species of turtle indigenous to the leased lands was threatened by overgrazing. Restrictions on grazing on the affected lands followed. Those who believe they are Individual Sovereigns (an oxymoron, incidentally), the tea party, AFP, the militia movement and assorted fellow travelers have seized upon the deadbeat ranchers defiance of BLM as an organizing opportunity and an opportunity to advance what they believe are their Second Amendment rights to point rifles at those enforcing what they see as unconstitutional federal hegemony. Most are probably unaware of ALEC and all are wrong about the Constitution. Article I, Section 3, clause 2 of the United States Constitution empowers Congress to own, transfer and administer land owned by the United States, and protects the property claims of both states and the United States. Moreover, Article VI, clause 2 ordains the supremacy of the US Constitution and laws and treaties promulgated pursuant thereto, as the supreme law of the land, binding in federal and state courts alike. The rancher stopped paying grazing fees on our land. On our behalf, and on behalf of a turtle, BLM ordered the rancher to remove his cattle from our land. He refused. BLM took the rancher to court. Predictably, he lost. He has been afforded all the Due Process guaranteed him by the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments to the US Constitution. Now the Feds seek to enforce the judgment procured in our name, to protect our land, our resources. Can you imagine what would ensue if you or I refused to pay our mortgage or rent and then imported armed mobs to thwart an eviction order? Were talking potentially decades in prison. Rather than being an example of tyranny, the saga has illuminated the extreme deference to individualism that pervades the American psyche.
Posted on: Sun, 13 Apr 2014 19:37:55 +0000