"Commissioners in Otero County voted 2-0 on Monday night to authorize Sheriff Benny House to open a gate allowing nearly 200 head of cattle into the 23-acre area despite Forest Service restrictions. A third commissioner was out of town for the vote.
"We are reacting to the infringement of the U.S. Forest Service on the water rights of our land-allotment owners," Otero County Commissioner Tommie Herrell told Reuters. "People have been grazing there since 1956."
But a U.S. Forest Service spokesman said the fence has also been there for decades, protecting a delicate ecosystem surrounding a natural spring as well as an endangered species of mouse from being trampled by cattle."
Here we have county commissioners recognizing that the government has no respect at all for their local economies, and in fact would have all businesses based on the use of natural resources go under, and all who have depended on that income go on the public dole. Better for ensuring Democratic votes that way. The EPA is the federal government's weapon of choice, and government agencies like the BLM and here, the Forest Service, are their heavy enforcers.
Ultimately, this stops when those who work for these rogue agencies, and who live in these communities, are made to pay a social price through shaming. No one wants to work for a reviled, jack booted organization, and be forced to put their neighbors out of work and out of business. Pressure needs to be brought on these federal employees, and their families, every day when they go to school or to the store. Every day, everywhere.
The commissioners need to organize their communities in this way, as only then will they see long term success against the seemingly all powerful federal government. Only when the federal government finds no one willing to do their dirty work will they realize that they can pass all the destructive laws they want in far away Washington DC, but those abusive laws will be nullified at the local level.
Related:
The U.S. Department of Agriculture, Office of Inspector General, located in Washington, DC, pursuant to the authority of FAR Part 13, has a requirement for the commerical [sic] acquisition of submachine guns, .40 Cal. S&W, ambidextrous safety, semi-automatic or 2 shot burts trigger group, Tritium night sights for front and rear, rails for attachment of flashlight (front under fore grip) and scope (top rear), stock-collapsilbe [sic] or folding, magazine – 30 rd. capacity, sling, light weight, and oversized trigger guard for gloved operation.
Related:
The U.S. Department of Agriculture, Office of Inspector General, located in Washington, DC, pursuant to the authority of FAR Part 13, has a requirement for the commerical [sic] acquisition of submachine guns, .40 Cal. S&W, ambidextrous safety, semi-automatic or 2 shot burts trigger group, Tritium night sights for front and rear, rails for attachment of flashlight (front under fore grip) and scope (top rear), stock-collapsilbe [sic] or folding, magazine – 30 rd. capacity, sling, light weight, and oversized trigger guard for gloved operation.
Putting the shaming pressure on the local agents could be the first tiny baby step to getting our country back.
ReplyDeleteAny mouse that is too slow or stupid to keep from being trampled by a cow deserves to be extinct. It's not like there aren't plenty of other rodents in the generic "mouse" niche.
ReplyDeleteKeep in mind that cattle had watered at that spring for decades (according to the story at least) and there were still plenty of mice to find. The reality, in my mind, is that the EPA is using the environmental excuses to get cattle off the range, and in a broader sense, to expel any industry based on the natural resources. Like the tortoise in Nevada, it is simply the vehicle they are using to implement their real agenda, and the sooner we call them on it, the better.
DeleteTo be honest, it was probably not the SAME cows. They pretty much cycle through the slaughterhouse every three years.
DeleteNEPA. Look it up. Those people you want to shame are just doing their jobs. The jobs that enforce laws that the majority of your fellow citizens voted for. You want to change the law? Then change the law. Don't take it out on the rank and file bureaucrats. Mostly, they are folks just like you. I'm stunned at how courses of retaliatory action are suggested with so little understanding of what's going on.
ReplyDeleteThe laws that they are enforcing are very often regulations that no one voted on. They are established by bureaucratic fiat, and are a well recognized method the politicians use to attain goals that no one would vote for.
DeleteWhen those rules and regulations are used to stomp on the rights and livelihood of folks that have been working on and living on the land for generations, there will be push back, and that is what you are seeing in New Mexico and in Nevada. The tortoise and the frog are simply excuses used by the politicized bureaucracy to force the people off of land that politicians want for some other use. That sort of action will be resisted.
Looked at another way, why is seemingly every federal agency arming up with military style weapons if what they are really doing is simply enforcing laws that fellow citizens have voted for? The appearance is hostile, and people notice the hostility.
When the IRS is used to torment groups that are not politically in favor, what should the people do? When the EPA chooses to enforce environmental regulations arbitrarily and in ways that negatively effect local ranchers and farmers, what are the people to do? You can bet that none of them voted to make rangeland off limits to protect a tortoise that is far from endangered.
The temperature of the country is rising due, in my opinion, to the corruption in government, and the tendency to force people to abide by regulations that are nonsensical and created non democratically. Look at our president, for example, and his willingness to either not enforce laws passed by Congress, or conversely to unconstitutionally create legislation by presidential order. When do the bureaucrats on the front lines choose not to obey? When do the people decide that enough is enough? There is a time for choosing coming, and everyone will need to decide where they stand.
Agree with everything you said. The news is replete with cases where the government on all levels are clearly acting out of their scope. The acquisition of the weaponry is unexplainable. The temperature is rising and justifiably so. But not in the Nevada and New Mexico cases. NEPA provides for the public to disapprove of government actions on public lands before that action is taken. That is the time to speak, before the action is taken. And at that time the public spoke. The public said to set aside and protect those lands. Right or wrong back then, we are now decades after the public made those decisions. The BLM and FS are just following and enforcing those decisions. That's their mission. Maybe things have changed since then. But instead of following the laws to vacate those decisions, suggestions are made for violence. It's like a child who can't have his way resorts to breaking his toys. Legislation and regulation can be changed. The call to arms should first be through the courts and voting booth. I believe the physical battles should be chosen carefully. When they do come, a couple hundred well-meaning guys with guns using women and children as shields will be no match for the most powerful military force the world has ever known. Bundy was flat out wrong. And there are legitimate ways for Otero county to acquire that land and water other than just claiming it.
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