How Refuge Occupation Could Fuel Land Privatization Movement

[phantom power]

"those black people" -- nice touch, Cliff.

PS, go read the rest, it's good stuff.

Last Wednesday night, Jan. 6, as hundreds of people met at the fairgrounds to express concerns about the armed occupation at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, another meeting was taking place at the Harney County Chamber of Commerce.

Fifty-two people — most of them ranchers — sat on uncomfortable plastic folding chairs in rapt attention for two hours to hear the presentation of Cliff Gardner, a 77 year-old, soft-spoken rancher from Nevada’s Ruby Valley. Gardner was dressed in faded blue jeans, brown ranch boots and a green, buttoned oxford shirt.

Gardner spoke about the importance of transferring federal lands to states and counties. His talk wandered like a tumbleweed in the high desert wind. He began covering land policy, then law, science, historical hunting records, common law, the appellate court system, states’ rights, checks and balances, before finally coming to a plea to mobilize anti-federal disdain into a formal campaign.

“Like the (Civil Rights) movement of those black people in the southern United States, we’re going to have to make a movement of civil disobedience,” Gardner said.

The ranchers at the meeting nodded in agreement. A hand went up, and Gardner answered the question about how to make it happen.

“We have to educate, educate, educate,” Gardner said.

The ranchers nodded again.

Gardner compared the American West to the original 13 colonies.

http://www.opb.org/news/series/burns-oregon-standoff-bundy-militia-news-updates/how-refuge-occupation-could-fuel-land-privatization-movement/

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

1. Why do they assume land privitization would help them?

Once it's private, anyone can buy it, and hell, they could have 'furriners' buying up the land all around them, and NOT selling off 'grazing rights'.

[phantom power]

2. yes, well, don't confuse them with "logic" and liberal "brain thinking"

Even if by some miracle they did end up owning it, we already know from history that what they'd actually do is overgraze it and mis-manage it in other ways, until they destroyed their own resource.

But whatevs, argle-blargle-freeeeeeeeeeedommmmmmm!1111!!!!

[L. Coyote]

3. How about a movement to buy those grazing rights and not use them.

If these people don't respect the land, let's lease it out from under them! It costs almost nothing to do so.

[phantom power]

4. That would be some good clean conservative-trolling fun.

[L. Coyote]

6. GoFundMe would probably raise 100K overnight right now.

And we could form a Committee of Selectivity to determine which "rancher" (militia wingnut) needs the most competition for their government largesse.

[enough]

5. First they need to get educated about what civil disobedience is.

It doesn't armed occupation and the threat of violence.

If they want to start there, and truly "make a movement of civil disobedience," great. That would be democracy.

[phantom power]

7. Conservatives have trouble with a lot of ideas like that.

It confuses them that nobody else thinks showing up with a bunch of guns is "peaceful protest" or "civil disobedience," no matter how many times you say the words.

It confuses them that in a democracy, government ownership _is_ "ownership by the people." But then it also confuses them that other citizens believe that "the people" means all people, not just conservative white men.

Amanda Marcotte wrote several articles where she talked about the fact that many of these areas of confusion stem from the fact that conservatives in general have a lot of difficulty with the idea of "consent." Which makes sense, when you consider that conservatism in general is fundamentally authoritarian in nature. And in particular the authority of conservative white men. Everybody else is supposed to toe the line and do what they're fucking told. The fact that other people might have a problem with this confuses and upsets them to no end, and it's what they're really getting at when they say things like "take our country back" or "make America great again."