As Dysfunctional as the TV Bundys but Even More Ignorant

Just on the off chance that you might actually be gulled into believing anything you might hear from the criminals who have seized some federal buildings in the Oregon wilderness, here's my poor attempt at clarification as well as a brief history lesson. (you knew that was coming, didn't you?).  Their chief complaint, of course, remains the current administration and they would , if allowed, spin their current illegal activities as citizens exercising their rights in the face of increased "gummint" (read this as "Obama administration" ) incursion into their lives.

In fact, their criminal activities  in the current matter stem from, and are extensions of,  their actions of several years ago when rancher Cliven Bundy was assisted by many of these same thugs when faced with the legal consequences of over 2 decades of breaking federal law by refusing to pay the grazing lease fees as he had contracted to do. In so doing, Bundy, his son Ammon, a  leader of the current morons,  and others would apparently wish to make it appear that some recent government plot or unwarranted change to standing land management law was to blame for their discontent. Bundy the son, said, "It is the people's facility, owned by the people," and it has been provided for us, to be able to come together and unite in making a hard stand against this overreach, this taking of the people's land and resources." Golly that's inspiring! The problem is that not one word of it is true! 

The land in question has never been the rightful land of any white man. Now if the Molalla, Cayuse or Sahaptin  Indians were occupying the building, that'd be different.  Unfortunately the ancestors of the Bundys have expressed no such concerns about the real original "owners."
Complicit in the father's case of several years ago  was Fox News, especially Sean Hannity ("This can spiral out of control. You get one wrong person out there, this can spiral out of control really fast," and "If it keeps going, this is going to end very, very badly." He (Hannity) even demanded, "The government needs to stand down" because "this is only a symptom of how one person, standing up to the government, I'm telling you, [it is] my opinion that this crisis could come to a head, and lives could be lost."

So what was that situation Hannity referred to?  The Bureau of land management is an organization created with the merging of two US government agencies in the Truman administration in 1946. For the math challenged, that's 70 years ago! The propose, then and now, is the control and management of  public land, especially to prevent  overgrazing and other misuse  such as the excessive removal of  grasses which hold soil and prevent a "dust bowl" effect.  

The Bundy's of the west would, of course, have the rest of us believe that this is an infringement of their rights, even though they have never purchased one acre of that land and it belongs to the nation, not to them. In the case of Cliven Bundy, he had, for several decades refused to pay the agreed upon annual lease price for grazing his cattle on this land he doesn't own. After over a decade in court, largely consisting of Bundy simply refusing to respond or appear, the BLM resorted to what an auto dealer would do in their place, they planned to repossess enough of Bundy's illegally fattened and fed cattle to pay the owed money. Oh my! Immediately in the view of Sean Hannity and Glenn Beck, this makes the government the bad guys and Bundy a populist hero.  When Bundy opened his mouth and the rest of his imbecilic and wide ranging hatreds spewed forth, Hannity  backtracked, unfortunately saving his career, such as it is. Beck, already fired by Fox, echoed those sentiments. That by the way is how a conservative hate monger can judge the "shark hurdling" moment of his career, when even Faux News can no longer  tolerate you. 

In truth, The BLM's roots go back to the Land Ordinance of 1785 and the Northwest Ordinance of 1787, which  provided for the survey and settlement of the lands that the original 13 colonies ceded to the federal government after the American Revolution. As additional lands were acquired by the United States from Spain, France and other countries, the United States Congress directed that they be explored, surveyed, and made available for settlement. After the Revolutionary War, the Treaty of Paris of 1783, signed by the United States, England, France, and Spain, ceded additional territory to the United States. In the 1780s,  states relinquished their own claims to land in modern-day Ohio. By this time, the United States needed revenue to function, and as a revenue measure land was sold so that the government would have money to survive. The Land Ordinance of 1785 instructed a geographer to oversee surveying these. In 1812, Congress established the General Land Office as part of the Department of the Treasury to oversee the disposition and sale of these federal lands. 

  Eventually, A system of local land offices spread throughout the territories, patenting land that was surveyed via the Office of the Surveyor General of a given territory. This pattern gradually spread across the entire United States. In the early 20th century, Congress took additional steps toward recognizing the value of the assets on public lands and directed the Executive Branch to manage activities on the remaining public lands. The Mineral Leasing Act of 1920 allowed leasing, exploration, and production of selected commodities, such as coal, oil, gas, and sodium to take place on public lands. Of course these lessees, being legitimate businessmen, actually paid their lease obligations!

The Taylor Grazing Act of 1934 established the United States Grazing Service to manage the public rangelands by establishment of advisory boards that set grazing fees. Similar legislation in 1937 requires sustained yield management of the timberlands in western Oregon. None of these laws functioned to take any private land, but were designed to manage public,  land. In 1946, when the Grazing Service was merged with the General Land Office, the Bureau of Land Management was formed within the Department of the Interior. As it exists today, In the end, the Bureau of Land Management is far less focused on land disposal and more focused on the long term management and preservation of the land. The agency achieved its current form by combining offices in the western states and creating a corresponding office for lands both east of and alongside the Mississippi River. As a matter of geography and economics, course, the BLM's emphasis falls today on activities in the western states as most of the mining, land sales, and federally owned areas are located west of the Mississippi. The BLM has never "taken private land" even though this charge openly contradicts the other statements such as "this is the people's land."  These dullards  don't even recognize it when they are self contradictory! 

To place the current activities of the Bundy clan in perspective, what they are doing is about the same as agreeing to pay rent for a spot of land on the National Mall in DC and, after refusing to pay the agreed upon rent for 20 years, claiming the government is at fault for doing its job in evicting them. Or maybe if a local farmer decided to graze sheep on the lawn at Mount Vernon and refused to move. In essence these shit kicker scofflaws love America as long as they are free to use its assets free of charge, but God forbid they be required to actually fulfill any other responsibilities of citizenship.