The Bundy Bunch and Co-dependancy
The Bundy bunch, and Cliven Bundy’s cattle are corralled at least for now. Cliven, the Bundy clan leader, is jailed for his part in the April 2014 Bunkerville standoff in Southern Nevada. He was taken into custody at the airport in Oregon when he went to visit his jailed sons. The cattle will be sold at auction by the BLM to recoup delinquent grazing fines and unpaid trespass fees.
It probably violates the civil rights of the Bundy’s to sell he and his sons at auction for their alleged crimes and to recoup costs for the damage to the wildlife refuge. And it clearly violates the Bundy belief that citizens, of our country, should live unfettered by the federal government. Everyone has an opinion!
Ammon and Ryan Bundy--sons of Cliven--and Brian Cavalier, Ryan Payne, and Blaine Cooper had been warming cells in Portland after being arrested for the takeover and occupation of the Malheur Wildlife Refuge outside of Burns Oregon. Defense lawyers in Oregon lost a bid for the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to block the move and Ammon, and presumably the other four, were arraigned in U.S. District Court in Nevada. Ammon refused to enter a plea.
Ammon Bundy, Ryan Bundy, Brian Cavalier, Blaine Cooper and Ryan Payne had been in federal custody in Portland, where they are accused of leading an occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge. Ammon and four other men, in spite of their protests to the contrary, have been transferred from custody in Oregon to temporary custody in Nevada. These self-appointed guardians of the Constitution face charges for the take-over of the Wildlife Refuge, January 2, 2016. The occupation lasted until January 26, 2016. They are also charged for planning and participating in the armed confrontation between Cliven and federal law enforcement, outside of Bunkerville, NV.
Before the refuge take-over, they gathered outside of the refuge holding a demonstration in support of Dwight and Steven Hammond, father-and-son ranchers who were convicted of arson. Prosecutors said the Hammonds set a fire that burned about 130 acres in 2001 to cover up poaching. They were sentenced to five years in prison.
The Hammonds, who were set to turn themselves in to serve their terms, just before the Bundy’s appeared, claimed they set the fire to reduce the growth of invasive plants and to protect their property from wildfire. This kind of arson has been common practice across the west especially on Public Lands, for decades. The reasons are almost always the same: burn invasive plants, protect private property, and attempt to stimulate the growth of more desirable forage for grazing.
The Bundy’s must have felt a bit of chagrin when the Hammonds made it clear that they didn't want help or support from the Bundy gang.
"Neither Ammon Bundy nor anyone within his group/organization speak for the Hammond family," the Hammonds' attorney wrote to Harney County Sheriff David Ward. Possibly the rationalization followed Ammon’s logic stream: “So, if the Hammonds don’t want our support, and as long as we’re heavily armed and in this part of Oregon, let’s take over the wildlife refuge and call for the repeal of big government.”
Cliven Bundy and I have a few things in common. I was born and raised by an anti-government ranch family. One difference is that Bundy claims to be and I am from an agrarian family. His family bought the ranch he occupies in 1948. My family had been ranching in the four-corners of the U.S. almost 80 years before the 1940's. We share an almost genetic distrust of government, although in my case it’s distrust of a system and process that places pathologically ambitious but poorly qualified people in power and positions of authority. And I distrust the promises and commitments that federal and state agencies and most governments--at all levels--make to the public using federal regulations and laws as their “signature in blood.” Cliven and some western state leaders what control of federal lands put into the hands of the state or passed into county control.
A few states, notably Texas, have voiced an opinion that there was some movement to secede from the Union. I’ve been to Texas and even lived in central Texas for a few months. The town I lived in was mostly trailers including the 7/11, bank, and post office. Every few years a tornado would re-design the layout of the town: nature’s version of urban redevelopment. If Texas had seceded when they threatened to, we wouldn’t have Senator Cruz to worry about this election.
I don’t like some of the actions that governments take “in the name of the people,” and I don’t care to secede from the Union, because I’m sure my idea of benevolent dictatorship would soon turn sour. I would be a country with one resident: me. So dealing with the public as the dictator I would have to deal with me, the public. Both the dictator and the public in this example have been occasional pains in the ass for over sixty decades both to myself and to others around me. I as the leader of the new country would need tax revenue to fund “stuff.” The citizen me would rather avoid paying taxes or at the least pay a flat tax. So. . . .!
Cliven Bundy, the southern Nevada rancher and self-styled, mouse that roared, is a classic example of a beneficiary of regulatory capture (#1), a co-dependency of sorts. More than a couple of decades ago someone in the Las Vegas District Office or Nevada State Office of the BLM was seduced or coerced into being an active participant in regulatory capture. That person, probably a manager, chose to ignore Bundy's repeated refusal to pay grazing fees. The public land manager, then, should have given Cliven a willful trespass, which mandated an immediate forced removal and possible confiscation of livestock by the BLM. A written notice for the potential revocation of his grazing license should have followed this action. But, fees, fines, and interest have grown until Cliven now owes over a million dollars.
Bundy refused to pay the fines or remove his livestock. When the BLM attempted a roundup of Bundy’s cattle, two years ago, they were confronted and stopped by an armed group. The Bureau of Land Management wisely backed off, after an armed standoff with the Bundy's and friends close to Bunkerville NV. Now that he and his miscreant sons—and many of their supporters and friends--have been rounded up, the federal government has confiscated his cattle and has the option of selling them at auction to recoup some of the fees. The landscape has been seriously harmed over time by grazing that should never have been authorized in the first place, given the fragility of the Mojave Desert ecologic system.
The Bundy story will continue as will the noise made by some Utah Legislators and our Governor to take over public lands. But for now, both have lost momentum; they are third page news. The Bundy’s and friends are in jail facing an unknown future. Some of them participated in the Commissioner Lyman incident at Recapture Wash in SE Utah. The cattle will be or have been sold, and only one person—one of the Utah participants in the debacle--lost his life in the two years of Bundy rebellion. The federal government will probably not self-assess their role in these events. They will likely happen again. These intermingled stories were a front-page three-ring circus act—no lions, tigers, or acrobats—just clowns.
But the Mojave desert ecosystem—flora, fauna, vegetation, soils, etc.--in Bundy’s grazing allotment, and in most parts of other western states where grazing occurs on public lands, have been changed significantly. Recovery is possible but unlikely to happen any time in the near or mid-term future. The co-dependency between regulator and permittee is a powerful wedge between regulatory compliance and the co-shared willingness to start the process of restoration.
There are too many variables: climate change, soil type, politics, laws, regulations, fringe ideology, and the entrenched culture of regulatory capture in the federal agencies, both locally and in D.C.
(#1) “Regulatory capture” occurs when special interests co-opt policymakers or political bodies — regulatory agencies, in particular — to further their own ends.” http://techliberation.com/about/