Okay, of course they do, well-played.
Now comes the tale of a lying thieving insaniac multi-millionaire, and the mirror is pointed the other way.
I refer to one Cliven Bundy.
For those who haven't paid much attention (and that would be 85-95%, based purely on direct interactions) Cliven Bundy is not Robin Hood, he's a robbing hood.
To set the scene, Bundy's family has owned a ranch in Bumfuck, Nevada, since
UPDATE: Since 1948. As Casey Stengel said, you could look it up.
Note that approximate date, you'll see this information again. They also paid the federal government for cattle grazing leases on adjoining federal land they never owned outright. This will become important too.
The farm passed from Bundy's father, to Cliven Bundy, somewhere about the 1970s. Who continued to pay the federal government for those adjoining annual leases, until 1993. Because at that point, the feds, via the BLM and EPA, had determined that in order to protect a tortoise, they needed to limit the number of cows that could be grazed on the federal lands in the area, to include the specific lease that had been renewed with the federal government every year for about twenty years before that point by rancher Bundy.
Ignoring the fact that he didn't own the land, he was just a tenant, he claims that the feds' decision to set terms of use on their land violated his rights to do whatever in hell he wanted, because evidently the tinfoil under his cowboy hat was too tight.
After several years of non-payment of his traditional lease, by 1998 the feds noticed his cows were grazing on federal lands, without their owner having any right to be there whatsoever. Doubtless after several lesser enforcement actions, like a visit, then a letter or twelve, they did what federal agencies do: filed suit in federal court seeking judgement to tell him to GTFO. Surprising no one with a brain, Bundy lost.
His entire argument was that the feds didn't own the land, but the court noted the finding of fact that the land in question had been ceded from Mexico to the United States (nota bene, not to the Territory of Utah, nor to the later Territory of Nevada eventually carved out from amongst the lands of the Territory of Utah, since in 1848, neither such Territory existed), and that therefore Bundy's whackdoodle contentions that the feds didn't own the land, didn't even pass cursory common sense and rules of settled law going back to about Hammurabi.
The feds set a trespass fine of $200/head/day, going back to 1998. Come some years ago, after dickering, arguing, cajoling, and such with Bundy, during which time he admitted and stipulated that the cows were his, they were on federal lands, and he would round them up, he did no such thing. The feds even offered to round them up for him, and hand him the money for the sale. (FYI, a head of cow goes for in the neighborhood of $5K@).
When all this failed, the feds once again went to court, obtaining in July of 2013, another federal summary judgment, affirming that Bundy and his herd of over 600 cows were in fact trespassing on the lease he hadn't paid for the use of since 1993, as well as now spilling over to new lands he'd never leased, at any point in time, in perpetuity.
The court found his claims that the land wasn't the feds' were prima facie nonsensical, granted the feds the right to seize the offending herd on federal land anytime after 45 days from the July 9th 2013 federal district court judgment (that would be August 25th, 2013 and following on my calendar), and the right to seize any future trespassing strays in perpetuity.
The feds waited another nine months, and finally, having had enough of Bundy's 20 year theft of government resources, acted to seize his cows, in obedience to federal law and the order issued by the federal court.
Whereupon Bundy wet himself, vowed to oppose the feds with force of arms, vowing not to be taken alive, and whilst fondling firearms. Ignoring the latter-day domestic terrorism violations, that right there is about 5 specific federal felonies on the federal books since the 1800s. Put there by such evil over-reaching oppressors as John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, and James Madison. (That would presidents Number 2, 3, and 4 if you didn't buy a program at the front gate.)
Then Bundy called upon the Whacktard Legions to join his jihad of stealing from the feds, because Mom, Apple Pie, and the Flag.
And they came.
Bundy has racked up, by a rough count, a potential fine of over $650,000,000 in trespass fines, besides the price of the unrenewed leases, if we look at 600 cattle x $200 fine per head per day x 365 days x 15 years. That's from 1998-2013.
His cattle herd, at market price, is worth perhaps $3,000,000 dollars.
So:
1) He is a multimillionaire, not some oppressed pauper, and
2) He's going to come up a little short on paying his fine.
There's nothing wrong with being wealthy per se, provided you come by it honestly. But when you pretend to be some poor working man put upon by Evil Uncle Sugar, when in fact you've enjoyed three or more generations of government handouts in the form of grazing leases from the same hand you're now biting, and secondly by stiffing the government for even that pittance for the last two decades, you aren't a working man, you're beyond morally challenged, you're a straight-up working thief. And crying for help when the cops have you by the scruff of the neck for that thievery is chutzpah the size of Texas.
Enter "our" side's fucking retarded legions.
Bundy cries "Big Government! Help!" (That would be the same Big Government who three generations of his family paid for those leases without a peep until 1993, and the same Big Government whose teat he was content to suck on as recently as the Clinton administration) and the dog whistle of insanity draws them like moths to a bonfire.
The Headless Chicken Posse ignores that the feds are simply enforcing, ever so gently and slowly, federal law on federal lands in compliance with the permission of the federal court, which has found against Bundy every time they've offered an opinion, and which even the lunatic 9th Circus Court refuses to overturn. (Of course, this will offend the strident lunatics and anarchists among us, who think the federal government should be non-existant. But usually they're too busy fapping to Ayn Rand's picture to bother anyone.)
They ignore that they're violating about 27 federal laws, felonies all, in furtherance of the criminal enterprise of a multimillionaire who's flouted federal law with the impunity normally reserved for indicted Democrat congressman and Columbian drug lords.
IMHO, at this point, the feds would be entitled to strafe Bundy's herd with attack aircraft, and napalm him inside his own house for threatening criminal violence towards agents attempting to end his twenty year and $650M thieving run.
I wish they would, and would happily cheer them on if they did, despite the fact that I think the federal government is bloated beyond metastasis, stupid beyond imagining, and on its best day, merely vile and loathsome.
Because Bundy is that wrong, that criminal, and that overdue for a good dose of comeuppance.
And all of this information is readily and easily available about 2000 places on the internet, for those with any modicum of wits and a yellow belt in Google Fu.
But instead, "our" pundits continue to whip the rabble into a froth against the federal government enforcing the laws against thieves stealing a national resource from every taxpayer in the country, because Barack Obama is evil.
This is the same shit we decry when black juries acquit black defendants who murder and rape black people because The Man Done Been Keepin' Us Down.
And of course, we can depend upon this administration to enforce the law as written, because that's what they've always d...wait, never mind.
Because we know that having found the Poster Child for crazy right wing gun-toting anti-government criminality, they want those visuals and the multiple news stories to go away, because midterm elections are coming and they don't want to see more stories like...wait, never mind.
Because Interior Secretary Sally Jewell, AG Holder, and His Nibs, Emperor BHO the First, aren't hardcore acolytes of Saul Alinsky, and would never read his Rules for Radicals, follow them in lockstep, or keep pushing situations that favor them over and over, because that's not how they roll since...wait, never mind.
"Ridicule is man's most potent weapon.
A good tactic is one your people enjoy.
Use different tactics and actions and use all events of the period.
The threat is more terrifying than the thing itself.
Maintain a constant pressure upon the opposition.
Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, polarize it."
- Saul Alinsky, Rules For Radicals
That's about half of them, right there.
And now comes Bundy, spouting racist nonsense that would warm the hearts of the KKK, and the quickest way to get trampled would be to stand between any one of his public supporters, and the nearest exit. People haven't moved this fast since the LZ Hindenburg tried to land in New Jersey, on their heads. And clearly, Bundy's fifteen minutes are about up.
The last time there was someone on TV this stupid named Bundy, it was on Married With Children. Which, unlike this round of silliness, was at least occasionally funny.
So if you're one of those idiots who's been chanting "Bundy good, government bad" shame on you.
If you're one of the fucktard legions standing in the desert with him, please attempt to suck-start your pistol or shotgun, and up the overall IQ of the planet, let alone our side.
And if you're one of the dipshit pundits who's been cheering this silly horseshit on, please stand next to one of the fucktard legion members when they're doing that.
You're the problem, not the solution to it, and you'll figure it out about ten minutes after you piss away any chance of winning a landslide in the upcoming midterms, and the rejuvenated Democrats in Congress announce a sweeping pushback of firearms laws because of all the terrorists in the desert, you stupid mouthbreathing morons. And doubtless you'll be the loudest whiners at that turn of events, with a suitably silly look on your face.
There are any number of actual cases and causes to oppose oppressive over-reaching dictatorial government actions.
Pay attention now:
THIS IS NOT ONE OF THOSE CASES.
GOVERNMENT EXISTS TO SECURE RIGHTS, NOT CEDE THEM TO CRIMINALS.
YOU'VE BEEN A VERY NAUGHTY BOY.
STFU, AND GO HOME.
AND STOP PLAYING WITH YOURSELF, KENT.
All this is, is a senile sumbitch caught robbing the bank, and bitching that there's a fed trying to put handcuffs on him and haul him away.
Gravity works. Boo frickin' hoo.
Update:
Equal time for the easily bamboozled...
Evidently it's "wealth envy" to note that someone is prospering from theft, and has been doing so for at least twenty years. My apologies that in this case, the perpetrator's first name isn't Congressman.
Nonetheless, a crook is a crook is a crook.
Sane people get this.
If you have a rational counterpoint to make, feel free.
For the rest, let us know when you'll be storming the Bastille to free all the income tax cheats. But if your only mission venturing here is to hurl your feces, be sure and dig around the corners of your cage. That way when you're done, you'll have a clean place for the other monkeys to sleep; no sense wasting a trip.
This x 1,000. Thank you.
ReplyDeleteC'mon, people...a little basic research tells you that this is NOT the (metaphoric) hill we want to die on...and in fact supporting this guy is a strategic blunder that will cost us more than we could ever hope to gain from it.
Ouch. Exactly right.
ReplyDeleteAnybody pissed off by that has to be part of the same sad little band of knuckleheads. The truth hurts.
I read the link where Rand Paul ran from this idiot like a scalded cat, and couldn't distance himself from him fast enough.
You're going to upset the stupid people with this one. People smart enough to think for themselves had their doubts about this Bundy clown all along.
ReplyDeleteBut the people who depend on someone else to tell them what to think are going to be more than a little upset. Which is way more of our so-called supporters than I'm comfortable with, and at least half the useful idiots at places like WRSA.
That's why I do my preps alone. But I at least give ya props for telling things like they are, and not like we wish they were.
The focus of this Bundy-BLM mess is that it has brought cameras and news to it see what the BLM is up to. The news media will muck it up and some incident will be create and some one will remember Wcao!
ReplyDeleteWaco was the FBI, not the BLM.
ReplyDeleteAnd this time around, BLM is in the right, and Bundy is the criminal.
If there's an incident, people are more likely to remember Al Capone.
The feds have no rights, and they don't own no land. We dno't need them for anithing! I say good for Bundy! And screw you aand any body whose isn't on his side.
ReplyDeleteYou're hopeless on the big issue until you offer a full retraction, but maybe you'll share with your readers a more accurate rendition of the legal aspects of the land.
ReplyDeleteEver hear of the Statute of Frauds? It's more than 300 years old. Because of that, we KNOW that Bundy was not a tenant as you wrote. You cannot produce a clear document spelling out that tenancy; therefore according to Law, it does not exist.
With regard to the title of the physical land, it belongs to either the US or Nevada. I don't know and it doesn't matter. Bundy had an estate in the grazing rights superior to either. How do we know this? Because nobody had claimed those rights prior to his ancestors and nobody made a timely claim that those rights are anyone's but his.
This is what it MEANS to create an estate in something; it's what property IS. Absent a State statute to the contrary, an estate is created just like that...one takes something without value and creates something of value. The created value is the creator's property. The fact that there is no specific statute addressing estates in grazing rights, doesn't mean that they can't exist. That would be like saying computers don't exist because the government never explicitly granted their existence. And in the case at hand, no statute to the contrary exists.
So the grazing rights WERE his and his family's all along. Now that may render the charging of fees and so forth an illegal taking in the first place, but that's a rather separate issue.
In fairness, if the fed offered value as compensation for the SPECIFIC taking of those grazing rights, then at least they'd be in accordance with the Fifth Amendment, with the question of whether or not that compensation was "just," a matter for civil procedures. I don't know and I doubt you do either, and the compensation would have to CLEARLY note that the money was compensation for the exact property of the grazing rights in the land. Otherwise, the Statute of Frauds applies and the compensation was for something else.
And even if every single element of the Law were against him--which they're not, since they're for him--it still wouldn't justify strafing and napalming. I'll let you figure out why, and maybe that two minutes of thinking will motivate you to do the right thing, and fully retract.
Perhaps Bundy, like so many others, have had enough Fed.Gov and has withdrawn his consent to be governed.
ReplyDeleteAnd like so many others, has concluded that it really doesn't matter who wins and rules in Washington. There is no political solution at this point. Politics these days is a lose lose proposition. Like nuclear war and healthcare, the only way you win is to not play. Power concedes nothing without a fight. Been that way forever. I'm through talking.
Earth to Klein:
ReplyDelete"I don't know and it doesn't matter"???
WTF are you blathering about then, if you "don't know and it doesn't matter"??
"What difference does it make" was famously heard from the lips of which Secretary of State?
You're just the right-wing version of those "Occupy" hippies, with about as much common sense.
Stay off of the internet, man, you're your own worst enemy.
That's fine Rick.
ReplyDeleteThat means Bundy was looking for a fight with the rule of law, and deserves whatever comes at him, opting to take his chances at being bulletproof and above the law.
Let's hope enlightenment hits his forehead at about 2000fps, and hopefully in future people will choose their next pseudo-revolutionary folk hero with a bit more circumspection and basic intelligence than they spent selecting to venerate this assclown.
"...hopefully in future people will choose their next pseudo-revolutionary folk hero with a bit more circumspection and basic intelligence than they spent selecting to venerate this assclown."
ReplyDeleteUh huh. Maybe they'll realize they don't need a folk hero. I know you ain't rooting for that, but your anonymous followers might wake up anyway.
Or maybe you'll get lucky and they'll just keep believing the swill that they can have a world where non-assclowns are free, but assclowns aren't. They only need the right leaders, right? Got anyone in mind?
Meanwhile, not a peep on the legal issues, which you pretended were the basis for your judgment. Or did you have the judgment first, and then make the argument?
Jim, the legal issues were dealt with in detail.
ReplyDeleteMaybe you missed that update, but instead of linking solely to the post from last week, I gave your own special post, just for you.
Try the "Home" key on my blog.
What I'm rooting for is that people like you will grow a brain, which pretty much defines lost causes.
But if it ever happens, it will relegate the Cliven Bundys of the world to be lubrication for the gristmills of justice, as was intended from before the country's foundation.
If they can't do the time, they shouldn't do the crime. And people like you might someday have the wits not to elevate every thief you read about into instant co-equal status with Robin Hood.
Your first clue should have been that he and his father were making a living off of federal subsidies for grazing their entire lives. That's not rugged individualism, it's government teat-sucking.
Whining about it afterwards is ingratitude; pretending not to owe for it is felonious larceny; pretending the foregoing don't exist is psychosis.