Those that believe we can lose our democracy and get it back in 2 or 4 years...

[jeffreyi]

124. I agree.

I remember the day after the ray-gun election, the district ranger announced that everything would be different now, no more budget for our natural resource management agency. That was true, played out gradually over many years. Then in the 80's they tried to dismantle the national forests and give them to the blm...less environmental regulation, you know...that ploy ultimately didn't work, enough people with political clout in the agency were still around. Some of them, including our forest supervisor, threw themselves on the career funeral pyre to stop that land grab. Now those experienced, knowledgeable, and networked people who started out groundpounding and rose in the ranks are retired, old, dead, whatever, and the long slow decline from starving the budget beast for so many years has just about killed off our national forest management, around here at least. Never mind that the percentage of the federal budget allocated for forest service is some ridiculous tiny fraction of 1%, even though this is where our water wildlife lumber biological diversity blah blah comes from. How different things are now, massive land grabs are doubtless in the works. The Bundy thing is a slow motion nightmare. However. The forests are changing, quickly. Mother Nature laughs last, always.