Wild West politics..........

There is more doom and gloom throughout the land coupled with a modicum of tension over the recent wild west episode of big rancher vs big government.

 

The background is simple. A cattle rancher in Nevada is grazing his herd on Federal land. His grazing rights, like those of many other such ranchers, are granted through a leasing arrangement on land administered by the Bureau of Land Management. Recently, the BLM rallied federal agents to force the rancher off his land by seizing his cattle herd.

 

 

The reason given by BLM for this action was the rancher, Cliven Bundy, is not paying his lease money. 

 

Cliven steadfastly maintains the grazing land is rightfully the property of the State of Nevada and not the Federal Government. The latter, he argues, would only squander his payments in the BLM bureaucracy whereas if he paid his fees to the State, Nevada would use the income for the public good.

 

Thus, Cliven's refusal to pay his fees is politically and not economically motivated.

 

Surrounding ranchers, townsfolk, civilian militias and others rallied to Bundy's cause with verbal, group and even armed support. This is when Fox News got hold of the story and exploded it into front page headlines.

 

Their story line was that this is another example of big government exploiting a poor rancher who is busy raising beef to feed the American people. Woe is he and shame on our government for confiscating, or as it turned out, attempting to confiscate his cattle.

 

What with federal agents trying clumsily to round up the herd while equally clumsily trying to maintain crowd control, and a civilian militia that seemed to appear from nowhere bearing arms that included assault weapons, something had to give. In this instance, the BLM back down, released the cattle along with a few dead ones and retreated.

 

The cattlemen that meet for coffee every morning here in a small Texas town were pretty much unanimous in their take on the Bundy Ranch affair. Although we have no significant presence of the BLM here in Texas, we certainly understand the value of leasing grazing land.

 

These cattlemen feet that Bundy was clearly in the wrong and should pay his fees and have done with it. As strong supporters of the political right exemplified by Fox News, however, they were conflicted because Fox supports  Bundy.

 

In a clear extension of Fox policy to steadfastly condemn anything the Obama administration and its various organs does, they supported Bundy on the grounds that his rights had been abused when the BLM attempted to confiscate his cattle. The BLM should not have taken such a drastic step, but rather issued a lien on his bank account or some such paper measure to recover past due lease payments.

 

There is more to the story.

 

The newly appointed and approved head of the BLM, Neil Kornze, was strongly supported by the Senate Majority Leader, Harry Reid. Kornze was Reid's former chief of staff, a fellow Mormon, and confidant if not lackey. The story goes that Harry Reid, Republican Senator from Nevada, has vested interests in obtaining BLM land for political and economic reasons of his own.

 

One theme goes that Reid was tied up with some Chinese solar panel manufactures seeking land in the US to install a solar energy scheme. Another is that Reid was providing land to one of his big political contributors. Having his ducks in a row, Reid sought to use BLM to redirect ownership or at least use of the Bundy Ranch land. Toward this end, BLM was instrumental in claiming the land unfit for cattle grazing because it was the domain of the endangered desert tortoise.

 

This ploy failed miserably and was quickly dropped in favor of seizing Bundy's cattle.

 

One potentially unsavory aspect of the Bundy Ranch affair is that both Reid and Kornze are members of the Church of Latter Day Saints. This relationship can and has led commentators to opine that there is a more sinister aspect of the land grab which could reflect adversely on the Mormon Church.

 

In a more palatable vein, the US Government and a group of armed civilians came very close to confronting one another with extreme prejudice. Some say shots were fired, but there was no actual battle. Nevertheless, the rise and expansion of armed civilian militias is of deep concern. These militias are populated with extreme right wing individuals who are largely alienated from normal society, often congregate  in isolated areas to practice shooting their weapons, discuss scenarios for civil strife or just vent their anger over contemporary social and governmental trends.

 

They, like many others including local Texas cattlemen, are anxious for the Obama administration to end. The two years and some months that must transpire before that legitimately happens may be marred by activists like the militias who feel they cannot wait until Obama's term expires. Equally disconcerting is what will happen under the new POTUS come the 2016 election.

 

There is a growing sentiment here in Texas that the coming mid-term elections in November of this year will mark and end to the Democrat majority in the Senate and thereby facilitate containing Obama policies until his term ends. Obama has certainly lost a lot of popularity if the polls on that subject are to be believed.

 

He has also lost a large portion of what little support Obama had in the Senate now that Harry Reid has been tainted and most probably rendered ineffective owing to his land grab capers. Many feel that it is about time that Reid retired and he may well do so as his personal health is also an issue.

 

Reid is currently under the microscope and one should expect the dirt to fly by the truckload.