Ted Cruz Vows To Sell Off Or Give Away Nevada’s Public Lands

[L. Coyote]

Source: Matt Lee-Ashley @ Think Progress

In a controversial new TV ad aiming to sway conservative caucus-goers in Nevada but likely to backfire with mainstream voters, Presidential hopeful Ted Cruz (R-TX) vows to sell-off or give away the state’s national parks, national forests, national monuments, and other public lands.

“If you trust me with your vote,” says Cruz in the ad, “I will fight day and night to return full control of Nevada’s lands to its rightful owners, its citizens.”

Read more: http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2016/02/19/3751233/ted-cruz-public-lands-ad/

---

Bundy envy anyone? What, not enough attention Ted?
Need a Pete Santilli, or should you just get a camera and a cowboy hat?

The conspiracy to serious warp reality so completely askew that voters might still vote Republican continues well ahead of schedule
due largely to the number of candidates that actually fit in a clown car in synergy with their ignorance of spelling and laws..

[Matthew28]

1. Yep, this snake doen't believe in national parks

And thinks all animals should die and corporations have a right to destroy it. This is why this man should not ever be allowed anywhere near the white house.

This is why this man is the worse that is running.

[roguevalley]

16. he's an idiot. He has no ties to this country. He's a foreigner. BWAHAHA! I SOUND JUST LIKE MY

UNCLE VERN! for once I agree with him.

[Lodestar]

46. I remember George Bush entertaining this idea too.

They discussed auctioning off the land to the highest bidders and were suggesting that
was a fair and level playing field (obviously for their wealthy friends).

[47of74]

2. Get out west now while you can

Before the teabaggers manage to sell off our National and State parks to the highest bidder for strip mining.

[L. Coyote]

14. As we say out here, "Visit but don't stay."

You know, don't Californicate and all that, the political trumpet call of our Republican governor Tom McCall. How times have been changed by the rise of idiocy.

How do you spell Koch-bot? This isn't a first for this moran:

Ted Cruz Launches Senate Fight To Auction Off America’s Public Lands
by Claire Moser Jul 10, 2014

...... Cruz filed an amendment to the Bipartisan Sportsmen’s Act of 2014 (S. 2363) to force the federal government to sell off a significant portion of the country’s most prized lands in the West. The amendment would prohibit the federal government from owning more than 50 percent of any land within one state, and requires the government to transfer the excess land to the states or sell it to the highest bidder.

Federal lands make up one-fifth of the nation’s landmass and over 50 percent of the land Nevada, Utah, Idaho, Oregon and Alaska. Under Cruz’s proposal, these states, which are home to some of the country’s most beloved national parks, forests, wildlife areas and iconic natural resources, would be forced to either pass the costs of managing these lands along to state taxpayers or, more likely, give them away or sell them off for mining, drilling, and logging. .............

Western Watersheds ?@wildadvocate
Maybe he really is planning to pick Michelle Fiore as his vice president? ! #TGIF #oregonstandoff http://fb.me/5uVwkmjGA

Spork ?@IdahoSpork
@dsstella I blame Richard Butler & Aryan Nations for N. Idaho insanity
https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/extremist-files/individual/richard-butler …



flitedocnm ?@flitedocnm
#Bernie Draws Line In #Nevada Desert: "Ban All #FossilFuel Extraction From #PublicLand"
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/2/18/1487255/-Bernie-Draws-Line-In-Nevada-Desert-Vows-To-Ban-All-Fossil-Fuel-Extraction-From-Public-Land … #Climate #NV #FeelTheBern🔥

[fifthoffive]

3. Uh-Huh

First salvo in Raphael Cruz's prophecy of transfer of wealth from the wicked to the righteous once Teddy Boy is elected President.

[retrowire]

4. I was about to ask if he's lost his fucking mind but

I went ahead and answered that myself.

ETA: People who watch these ads, really think about that sentence. He'll fight to give the land back to it's rightful owners? It's citizens?

He of course means it's wealthiest citizens. So don't go thinking you'll be able to own property on that land. It'll be strip mined by a corporation. Because corporations ARE PEOPLE! DDDD

[kimbutgar]

5. Aren't Federal lands owned by the people of the US for everyone to use?

Ted wants to pay back his campaign donors.

[William Seger]

12. If they aren't, then they should be returned to their RIGHTFUL owners

These self-entitled assholes are fine with the US Government using the US Army to drive off Native Americans, because then the "rightful owners" are determined by some "Constitutional" way of handing it over to some white guys with guns.

[Maeve]

6. Take it away from the rest of us, give it to corporations eom

[William Seger]

18. Exactly: convert it to private wealth via a corrupt state government

Any time you hear "states rights" it's usually because state governments are cheaper to buy.

[2naSalit]

27. Precisely.

[NCjack]

7. That should help his chances in the Nevada primary but not the General Election. /nt

[maxsolomon]

8. BLM lands are largely land that NO ONE WANTED.

for Ranching or Farming.

the Bundy-types don't want to MANAGE them, either. they just want to do whatever they want to do on them: ORV through Cryptobiotic Soil, hunt willy-nilly, spread invasive plants, bulldoze cat tracks prospecting for minerals, beat up hippies in Subarus, etc.

this anti-Fed hysteria is only going to get worse with another Dem in the White House. the Feds need to start culling the Sovereign Citizen herd, so to speak. stop mollycoddling them.

just because they have cowboy hats doesn't mean they're patriots.

[dixiegrrrrl]

24. Actually, the American Indians still claim those lands "that no body wanted"

if you recall, the damage the Bundys did in Oregon was to lands of "archaeological " importance and sacred lands of the local Indians.

While the lands be what "nobody" wanted for ranching and farming, the Indians were not ranchers or farmers, and found use for those lands for thousands of years.

[maxsolomon]

32. are you proposing that all BLM lands be given to the tribes?

I'd wager that these rugged individualists would start to love Federal ownership if such a thing was enacted.

any point where you'd draw the line? National Monuments? National Parks?

[dixiegrrrrl]

36. I would propose that the Feds allow honest dialogue with the tribes

about a fair and equitable disposition of the lands
to make up for the outright theft of same long ago.

Any settlement in today's climate might be in terms of addressing the massive poverty, unemployment, health needs of the tribes where they are now.
Oh, and massive clean up of the mining toxicity left on current Indian land.

[William Seger]

34. Burns Paiutes to Ammon Bundy: You're not the victim

http://www.oregonlive.com/oregon-standoff/2016/02/burns_paiutes_to_ammon_bundy_y.html

BURNS— Members of the Burns Paiute Tribe found it comical and frustrating when Ammon Bundy and his followers seized the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in the name of ranchers they claimed had lost the land unfairly to the federal government.

The Paiutes, too, had complaints about their treatment by federal land managers. The government seized 1.5 million acres of their people's ancestral homeland in 1879, and members waited nine decades to receive compensation checks for $743.20 each.

One person bought a washer-dryer set. Another bought college textbooks and sent in a tuition check. Some paid down bills, bought groceries and banked what was left.

[2naSalit]

29. And introduce exotic species like

Last edited Fri Feb 19, 2016, 07:28 PM - Edit history (1)

Walleye Pike to our waters because the dumb humans can't figure out how to catch trout.

[padfun]

9. Um, ted, Public lands means it now belongs to "It's Citizens"

“I will fight day and night to return full control of Nevada’s lands to its rightful owners, its citizens.”

I had to do a double flip reading that one.

[hunter]

10. He can go fuck himself with a cholla cactus.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cylindropuntia_bigelovii

[lastlib]

20. (I personally had a saguaro in mind--more likely to fit the hole.....)

[dchill]

25. Yeah, I vote for this one.

[2naSalit]

51. Now that's what I'm talkin about!

[muntrv]

11. No mention of giving the land to the Washoe or other indigenious groups in Nevada.

[L. Coyote]

15. Give it back to the Mormons, they give it to Mexico, Mexico gives it back to Spain, Spain .....

gives it back to the owners.
That way everyone has to undo their injustice!

[EndElectoral]

13. National Parks are a socialist plot.

[PeoViejo]

17. Give it back to the Buffalo

..that way, Humans will stop arguing about who got here first or whatever.....

[L. Coyote]

19. I agree, get rid of the cow damage at least. Give it back to its owners means the non-humans to me.

[PeoViejo]

21. They were here first.

It's Humans that are the invasive species destroying their World.

[happyslug]

28. Sorry, Buffalo were NOT native to Nevada, with maybe the exception of a small piece in the north

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_bison#Range_and_population

Please note the above has come into question, it appears to be a little to broad, not much, for example most other people who recorded bison do NOT place any in Nevada, the above map shows a tiny bit in Nevada (and were gone by 1838, while Nevada was still technically part of Mexico).

American Bison are low head mostly grazing animal (Low head to eat grass). Cows and horse are also grazing animals, but can also browse, i.e eat leaves, shoots etc (Thus the head is carried higher above the ground). Nevada has a lot of desert plants, that favor Browsing not grazing.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grazing

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Browsing_(herbivory)

The lack of Graze is the primary reason no one wanted Land in Nevada. Without Graze, you can NOT run Sheep (but can run Goats) and cattle are marginal (as are horses). Thus the largest native animals was the Mule Tail Deer, Rocky Mountain Goat, Bighorn Sheep and other browsers.

http://www.ndow.org/Nevada_Wildlife/Animals/

Further EAST, American Bison dominated, but NOT in Nevada.

Side note: Please note, while Bison were reported in the Forests of North America, these were rare beasts even before White Settlement. Forests are marginal areas for grazers like Bison, Browsers like White Tail Deer and Elk were more plentiful. Thus the lack of reports of Bison in the above areas may just be a product of no grass for them to graze on in the first place, but where graze did occur they grazed. Thus very small numbers even before White Settlement till you hit the Prairies of Illinois.

Thus while Alabama was settled AFTER the state of Mississippi, the lack of reports of Bison in Alabama while you have reports in Mississippi and Georgia may be the result of the Bison being killed off before anyone reported that bison was in Alabama. Florida is a little to swampy for Bison, while New York City Area, New Jersey and Pennsylvania had a lot of people moving in (The Swedes, then the Dutch then the English) AFTER the founding of colonies in New England and Virginia so the Bison may have existed but the records were destroyed as the Dutch took over from the Swedes and then the English took over from the Dutch.

As to the Carolinas, that area was a hot bed of French Protestant colonial attempts in the 1500s (all failed) and with those failures all reports of Bison disappeared. The same with the Great Lakes Area, an area under heavy French Catholic control starting in the mid 1500s, but no actual French Settlement till 1608 (I.e. the records were never written down for what the French wanted was Beaver Furs NOT buffalo pelts and thus reports of beavers were sent back to France but little else). One of the reason the French settled Quebec in 1608 was the Native Population had almost disappeared from the St Lawrence River Valley by 1608, mostly by disease. We have French Reports on the huge population on natives in the mid 1500s and almost none by 1600s in the same area.

In many ways the French move into the Great Lakes and the Mississippi River Valley was an attempt to stabilize trade given the huge drop in population. A side affect of this may be a decline in areas for Bison to Graze. Native Americas were already farmers by 1500, but did not have the equipment to remove stumps. Thus a lot of Indian corn was planted in fields with stumps after the tree had been cut down using fire and stone tools. Corn eats up a lot of nutrients and production declines after so many years of production so new fields had to be cleared. The abandoned fields would have been perfect for grass and Bison Grazing. The drop in Native Population lead to a drop in farm lands actually being used and then abandoned and thus no graze for the Bison. Thus by 1600 the Bison had left for areas with grass to graze and thus no reports around the Great Lakes and the St Lawrence.

Just some comments on Bison and why they may not have existed in the Eastern US except in small groups and small patches given the huge Forest the Eastern US was in 1500.

[elljay]

42. Thank you!

I love learning new things.

[liberal N proud]

22. Does that include Area 51?

[happyslug]

35. Who cares about Area 51, what about the old Atomic Bomb areas

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nevada_Test_Site

One of the problems Nevada has when it comes to water is they is a lot of underground water in Nevada, but water contaminated by the Underground Nuclear tests done since the Test Ban treaty.

[houston16revival]

23. This is EXACTLY What They're After

Libertarians, Trump, Cruz, Conservative Court

are all after public lands for themselves, their benefactors, their
casino corporations

Make no mistake about it

A legislative coup d'etat is underway

and Stonewalling Obama on Supreme Court nominees is part of it

[2naSalit]

30. Without a doubt!

[L. Coyote]

37. Trillions and trillions of dollars ...

Half the land in the West and all those minerals, if only you can break up the USA ..... traitors!

[houston16revival]

40. But how could this be?

They swore an oath on the Bible to defend the Constitution of the United States

[L. Coyote]

41. Which gave them the power to invade the Ohio Nations after 1776.

The real reason for the War of Independence, stealing Ohio from the Indians .... because the big, bad, oppressor, the government (King) forbade invading countries he had diplomatic relations with.

[happyslug]

45. Because the King wanted to control the Fur Trade

When the French and Indian War ended, the French Government withdrew from North America except for two islands off Canada for use of French Fishing boats. New Orleans was given the Spanish to compensate them for the lost of Florida (The Treaty of Paris of 1783 return Florida to Spain but Spain also retained New Orleans till 1802, when they gave it back to France, who in turn sold it to the US).

Anyway, after 1763, the French still controlled the Fur Trade in North America, and continued to do so till about 1820. The Main reason is the Native American Tribes all knew French from the French control of New France from the late 1500s till 1763. The king of England wanted that Fur Trade for it was a high profit trade. The intolerable acts of 1774, included extending the Border of Quebec to include any waters that flowed into the Gulf of Mexico, thus cutting off the American Colones from their western areas in addition to Ohio. All of this was to make sure all furs went through Quebec, not the Colonies and NOT New Orleans.

One of the problems was the Native preferred goods from the Colonies, even if they started out from England, for they were not only better that the goods they could obtain from Quebec but cheaper. The Quebec Act of 1774 was an attempt to gain for the King of England the profits of the Fur Trade, even if that meant Americans would be restricted to the Eastern Seacoast.

I am one of those people who think that the Quebec was the Key to George Washington siding with the Colonies not the King in 1775, for he had purchased various land grants given to soldiers who served under him for what is now Western Pennsylvania, an area that flows into the Gulf of Mexico and thus Quebec under the Quebec act of 1774 NOT Virginia or Pennsylvania (Who cut a deal as to Western Pennsylvania during the war, it remain Pennsylvania but the Virginia Land Grants were recognized as valid, Washington Kept his land to sell to settlers).

Thus it is true the Colonies wanted independence so they could move into the Ohio Valley, but the King only opposed that so he could dominate the Fur Trade and increase his personal wealth (and the wealth of various members of Parliament also involved in the Fur Trade). Please note the Native Americans also wanted to trade with the Colonists for they received better deals, even as they lost they lands to the Colonists.

The Native American situation in the late 1700s and into the early 1800s is like people's attitude to Global Warming, how can they benefit TODAY, even if that means massive losses decades from now? i.e. give land for goods that they needed, but refused to developed those goods themselves so they would no longer have to turn land over to the whites. You see the same today with Global Warming denialists, they look at what they have to give up today to address global warming, and REJECT doing so, even through it is clear they will lose almost everything in 20 to 50 years. Thus most Native Americans continue to trade with the Colonists even after the end of the War for Independence, for it appeared to be the best deal they could get. As the fur trade moved further west, the support the Native Americans had among whites fell, so by the 1830s you have the movement to removed all Native Americans to Oklahoma.

[L. Coyote]

48. The Ohio Company formed earlier than most realize.

And more officers of the revolt are buried in Marietta than any cemetery, around the Conus Mound, because officers got the best land grants after invading the Northwest Territory. The first building in Marietta was a fort with musket holes for shooting Indians. Selling Native land in Ohio floated the nascent US financially.

[happyslug]

56. Lord's Dunsmore War was bad, even Jefferson said so

Last edited Sat Feb 20, 2016, 01:24 AM - Edit history (1)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lord_Dunmore%27s_War

Another case of the Iroquois selling out everyone else. In the Fort Stanwix Treaty of 1768 the Iroquois sold to the white all their claims to the lands south of the Ohio River. Given the Iroquois conquests in the late 1600s they had title to the land, the rest of the Native Americans were viewed as their subjects.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Fort_Stanwix

More on the "Beaver wars" of the 1600s that saw the Iroquois take control over most of Eastern North America (and the French reaction to that expansion that lead to the French and Indian Wars of 1689 till 1763)



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beaver_Wars

These lead to the French and Indian wars that later lead to the Treaty of Fort Stanwix.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_and_Indian_Wars

[Grins]

26. "...to return full control of Nevada’s lands to its rightful owners..."

"...to return full control of Nevada’s lands to its rightful owners.."

But Ted; the Paiutes and Shoshone? will just put up another casino!!!

[2naSalit]

31. yeah but at least they will

stop running huge chains across the landscape destroying wildlife habitat so cattle can further destroy the land. Indians have respect still, I think that is a fading to nothing trait in our culture

[Zorra]

33. Trust him with my vote? pfft. I wouldn't trust him to be anywhere near my grandkids. nt

[L. Coyote]

38. Malheur occupation is over, but the war for America’s public lands rages on

Malheur occupation is over, but the war for America’s public lands rages on
February 19, 2016 11.39am EST

University of Oregon geography professor Peter Walker has just returned from Harney County, Oregon, where armed occupiers took over the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge. He spent several weeks attending community meetings and watching the events unfold, which he describes here. ....

........ As a researcher in the politics of public land, I went to Harney County to see what was going on firsthand. Having spent five weeks going back and forth between my home and the community, I’m convinced that the Malheur occupation was part of a much larger, well-funded and politically connected movement to transfer public lands to private owners. I’m also convinced it is not over, and we must expect to see more violent attempts to seize public land in the future. ......

[SCVDem]

55. Just shoot their ass!

With extreme prejudice!

Buh Bye!

[L. Coyote]

39. Bundy's lawyer is giving #BundyTeaParty credit for this ad running. LOL.

Guess he missed the part with Cruz trying it first in the Senate, and failing.

[Shrike47]

58. Bundy's lawyer, a real slime ball, is trying to frame this as free speech, not coercion and theft.

[CommonSenseDemocrat]

43. Give away to his cronies?

[left-of-center2012]

44. He's not the only one

"four of the six remaining Republican candidates for president are on the record supporting the transfer of ownership of American public lands and energy resources to state or private control."

[Lodestar]

47. This has been on the Republican agenda at LEAST as far back as G. Bush. n.t

[L. Coyote]

53. Ronald Reagan's Sec. of Interior James Watt was a Drill, Baby, Drill advocate.

That was the turning point, placing an "anti-environmentalist" in charge of public lands.

[Lodestar]

61. True dat! I forgot about him...n/t

[tabasco]

49. The people of Nevada would be hurt the most.

The federal government pays counties with lots of federal land - payments in lieu of taxes. It's based on acreage, so counties in states with lots of otherwise useless land get a nice paycheck. If the land goes to private ownership, a lot of those local govts. will not have squat to spend on community programs, like they do now.

[Tommy_Carcetti]

50. Slappy the Dummy's gone Full Bundy.

Never go Full Bundy.

[erpowers]

52. Native Americans

Give the land back to the Native Americans who previously owned the land.

[potone]

57. Does he really not understand that public land belongs to the public?

Or is he, as I suspect, pandering to the greedy who want to purchase it and the ignorant people whom he exploits with a bogus commitment to "freedom."

This man terrifies me because he is not stupid, he is just a religious fanatic with a libertarian attitude towards taxes and the government. I just can't stand him. I think I need to stop reading about him; it can't be good for my health.

[trillion]

59. Agreed, he terrifies me too.

[L. Coyote]

60. Political bullying with weapons, the first step to warfare. Good reason for fear.

Fear is a very practical and effective political weapon, one that requires a lot of push back.

[Lodestar]

62. Can't you just picture these fat cats sitting around a table divvying up the spoils?

The level of greed is just off the charts.

[Quixote1818]

63. Most of that land is worthless. It costs more to manage it than it brings in. nt

[olddots]

64. it has been scientifically proven that Ted Cruz

is a venerial wart .

[L. Coyote]

65. The Great Republican Land Heist - Cliven Bundy and the politicians who are plundering the West

The Great Republican Land Heist - Cliven Bundy and the politicians who are plundering the West
By Christopher Ketcham

.... In April 2014, three weeks before my visit, the BLM had begun to impound Bundy’s herd, which had been illegally grazing on a 578,724-acre parcel of public land in the Mojave Desert known as the Bunkerville Allotment of the Gold Butte range. The BLM planned to sell the herd in order to reimburse the public for an estimated $1.1 million in grazing fees and fines that Bundy owed. Bundy, decrying federal tyranny and vowing to do whatever it took to protect his rights to graze his cattle, called in the press to witness the start of a “range war” on Gold Butte. On April 9, a few days after the roundup began, one of Bundy’s sons was shocked with a taser after he attacked a BLM officer. Video of the conflict was posted on YouTube and became a right-wing cause célèbre. Fox News showed Bundy parading in his white hat, on his white horse, carrying an American flag that billowed in the Nevada wind. At least a hundred men and women converged on Bundy’s ranch, anticipating the next Waco. They brought with them semiautomatic handguns, large-bore revolvers, assault rifles, and don’t tread on me flags. .............

Jack Ryan @jkryn
#ScribdDocs - I’m reading 02-19-2016 ECF 177 - U.S.A. v A. BUNDY et al - Second Response to Motion for Access by USA
https://www.scribd.com/doc/299863400/02-19-2016-ECF-177-U-S-A-v-A-BUNDY-et-al-Second-Response-to-Motion-for-Access-by-USA …

Hobo ?@HomewardBounder Retweeted Jack Ryan
In which the Govt tell #Oregonstandoff defendants 'No, your lawyers can't traipse round the crimes scene u created'.