I mean, this specific thing. Obviously, emotions are running high. This is rural Nevada, and these folks are hard core RW. The BLM has been around town for a while looking like they were ready for a range war. They were out in full force along the 15 yesterday up near Bunkerville, where Bundy had been grazing his cattle.
As in anything, there's two sides to this, and a few twists and turns. Government overreach in telling ranchers how many cattle they can raise, water allotments (which has more to do with Las Vegas' water grab, but that's another story), etc. vs. the fact that Bundy decided back in 1992 or 1993 to "fire" the BLM and hasn't paid any grazing fees since then. Add environmental groups threatening to sue the BLM if they don't protect the desert tortoise out on the open range, and you've got a nice little range war cooking.
The BLM backed down yesterday before it became a shooting confrontation, so the neanderthals are beating their chests today. This, of course, is not over.
There is a voice of reason in the wilderness...this letter was posted in our local newspaper. Bruce lays out just how easy it would have been to stay in compliance with BLM rules, which is what everyone seems to be missing. It didn't have to come to this. When you're done, check out the hair-tearing-out over Free Speech Zones. As long as they just rounded up "lefties" so Junior didn't have to see that people disagreed with him, fine. Now? Time to set their hair on fire.
http://mvprogress.com/2014/04/09/open-forum-there-are-other-ranchers-with-grazing-allotments-out-there/
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