What it was like to spend five weeks with the militants in Oregon

[struggle4progress]

19 FEB 2016 AT 14:38 ET
Peter Walker

... As a researcher in the politics of public land, I went to Harney County to see what was going on firsthand ... I’m convinced that the .. occupation was part of a much larger, well-funded and politically connected movement to transfer public lands to private owners. I’m also convinced .. we must expect to see more violent attempts to seize public land in the future ...

... The group would later state openly that they intended to make Harney County the first “constitutional” county in America – by which they meant a county where the federal government owns almost no land and has almost no direct authority ...

At a community meeting that I attended near .. Crane .. on January 18, Ammon and Ryan Bundy, LaVoy Finicum and Ryan Payne ... gave a lengthy presentation of their interpretation of the U.S. Constitution in which they claimed the federal government has essentially no authority beyond the powers specifically enumerated in the verbatim text of the Constitution, and that the federal government cannot own land outside Washington, D.C. except with the consent of the states ...

Harney County ranchers at the meeting complained that the occupiers were asking too much – for example, if ranchers tear up their grazing leases, then the value of their former grazing rights is subtracted from their net worth and they cannot borrow against it. And none welcomed an armed standoff with federal authorities ...

https://www.rawstory.com/2016/02/what-it-was-like-to-spend-five-weeks-embedded-with-the-bundy-militants-in-oregon/
https://theconversation.com/malheur-occupation-is-over-but-the-war-for-americas-public-lands-rages-on-54943

[jberryhill]

1. One of the huge flaws in their understanding...

"the federal government cannot own land outside Washington, D.C."

I guess they'd like to wind back the clock and undo the Lousiana Purchase, the Treaty of Guadelupe Hidalgo, and all of the other acts by which lands outside of the original 13 colonies became a part of the United States in the first place.

The US government acquired these lands directly by purchase or by cession through treaty.

So, okay, the federal government can't own land. I guess that means we have to give Alaska back to the Russians.

Hey, Vladimir, we forgot to check the Constitution first. Here's Alaska back, and Sarah doesn't even need to get off her porch!

[struggle4progress]

2. But William Seward didn't get permission from the Alaskan legislature

before buying all that land in 1867! That's a clear violation of the Constitooshun!

[Downwinder]

3. the 11 Western states have disclaimer clauses

in their enabling acts, promising to forever give up federal lands.